by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 18, 2026 | AUKUS, China, Defence Budget, Featured, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Oz Budgets: the Unhappy meet the Disappointed. Big | RSS.com Michael and Marcus argue furiously over the merits and messages in the Albanese Govt budget versus Opposition leader Angus Taylor’s response. Only one of them is right….Then Marcus burrows deep...
by Marcus Hellyer | May 13, 2026 | AUKUS, Defence Budget, Featured, Policy
The 2026-27 Defence Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) are a very strange document. In fact, we’ve never seen anything quite like it. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is the paradox that in an age of increasing defence budgets, funding actually goes...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | May 1, 2026 | Featured, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
Zen and the Art of Defence investment: big numbers | RSS.com A Zen temple helps Marcus seek balance between the contradictions in Australia’s defence Strategy, while Michael struggles with a noisy kettle in the bunker. Australia’s new Defence Secretary...
by Marcus Hellyer | Apr 29, 2026 | AUKUS, Featured
Unlike the Australian Department of Defence, the United States’ Department of Defense (or War, depending on where you stand in the whole culture wars thing) publishes real data that allows Congress and the public to assess the Department’s performance in spending the...
by Marcus Hellyer and Michael Shoebridge | Apr 9, 2026 | Defence Budget, Featured, Podcasts, Strategy & Capability
America’s wartime defense budget: $1.5 trillion to | RSS.com Back in the SAA Bunker deep in the Brindabellas, Marcus & Michael declare energy independence (okay, thanks to government subsidies) and ponder the details of the Trump Administration’s new...