by Marcus Hellyer | Nov 7, 2023 | AUKUS, Strategy & Capability
Eighteen months ago, I wrote in The Australian that “there are very dark clouds on the capability horizon. We are facing the strategic risk of both of the Navy’s core combat fleets ageing out before replacements arrive”. At a time of growing regional threats, the...
by Peter Jennings | Nov 7, 2023 | China, Indo Pacific, Strategy & Capability
It suits Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping to keep the Prime Minister’s China visit focused on symbolism rather than substance. The Communist Party-controlled Chinese media is presenting the visit as an opportunity for Australia to atone, in the words of Beijing’s...
by Michael Shoebridge | Nov 4, 2023 | China, Indo Pacific, Policy, Strategy & Capability
The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping in Beijing this week is the culmination of the Albanese government’s efforts to show it has stabilised the bilateral relationship between Australia and China. The stated goal expressed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Oct 31, 2023 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Podcasts, Policy, Strategy & Capability
The Estimates Edition: a recruitment crisis, fragile fleets & lessons from America | RSS.com In Episode 6, Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge get into why the complex, top heavy leadership structure of Defence affects performance and demotivates those below...
by Peter Jennings | Oct 28, 2023 | Uncategorized
Soon after Hamas’s appalling terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “We will crush and destroy Hamas”, eliminating the group’s military capabilities and political grip over Gaza. As the Israel Defence Forces prepare...
by Michael Shoebridge | Oct 27, 2023 | Policy, Strategy & Capability
The Defence organisation is top heavy, over managed and under led. It has become so organisationally complex that it can’t understand or govern itself, let alone have the bandwidth or time to engage with and understand what’s happening in the world outside its...
by Marcus Hellyer | Oct 26, 2023 | Defence Budget, Strategy & Capability
“Gentlemen, we have run out of money, now we have to think”, is a quote attributed both to the physicist Ernest Rutherford and to Winston Churchill. The attribution is probably erroneous in both cases, but it’s a sentiment Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles might...
by Anthony Bergin and Greg Rose | Oct 26, 2023 | Uncategorized
In war, the humanitarian needs of a civilian population caught in the crossfire need to be met. A multitude of humanitarian actors play essential roles. Last week, former minister for defence materiel Mike Kelly and former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma...
by Peter Jennings | Oct 24, 2023 | China, Strategy & Capability
Yet another review has defended the absurd 2015 Northern Territory decision to lease the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company for 99 years. The lease continues to dog successive federal governments and is undermining defence planning. Just weeks into replacing Tony...
by Michael Shoebridge | Oct 23, 2023 | AUKUS, Indo Pacific, Strategy & Capability, Ukraine
Mr Albanese is visiting Washington at a time when US defence and foreign policy is focused on support to Ukraine resisting Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion and the new war between Israel and Hamas provoked by Hamas terrorists’ mass murders and hostage taking....
