by Michael Shoebridge | Jun 4, 2025 | AUKUS, China, Defence Budget, Strategy & Capability
As Anthony Albanese’s election euphoria fades, the hard work of his second term has begun. And there’s probably not much that’s more difficult than navigating his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the G7 in Alberta Canada. Mr Trump demonstrated his lack...
by Peter Jennings | Jun 3, 2025 | Defence Budget, Indo Pacific, Strategy & Capability
Pete Hegseth, the tough-talking US Secretary of Defence, has “conveyed” to Richard Marles “that Australia should increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of its GDP as soon as possible”. A “readout” of this meeting was released by the US Department of...
by Peter Jennings | Jun 2, 2025 | AUKUS, China, Defence Budget, Indo Pacific
Anthony Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump will happen in Alberta, Canada, at the mid-June G7 meeting. It would be astonishing if Albanese didn’t go on to visit Trump in Washington DC. In the past, Australian prime ministers and US...
by Michael Shoebridge | May 27, 2025 | China, Policy
As prime minister Albanese got over the jetlag from his recent whirlwind trips to Jakarta, the Vatican and Singapore, I’d hope someone found the time in his diary to tell him about an opportunity Australia had to play a key role in reinforcing multilateral approaches...
by Marcus Hellyer | Apr 29, 2025 | Defence Budget, Policy
Last week the Liberal Party released its defence policy (slightly) ahead of Saturday’s federal election. The initial announcement focused on the goal of growing the defence budget to 2.5% over the next five years and to 3.0% over the decade. Since then, the...
