$270 billion to Defence, to guard Australians: Morrison

The Morrison Government will invest $270 billion throughout the following 10 years to enhance the capacity and strength of the Australian Defence Force to guard Australians while ensuring the nation’s interests in a changing worldwide condition.

“My first priority is keeping Australians safe,” the Prime Minister said, in a recently released 2020 Defence Strategic Update.

The update gives another roadmap to handle Australia’s challenges while expanding investment and personnel across the entire ADF.

“We are ensuring Defence has more durable supply chains, while further strengthening Australia’s sovereign defence industry to create more high-tech Australian jobs and enhance the ADF’s self-reliance,” he stated.

PM also emphasized that the ‘Federal Government is focused that the Australian Defence Force is prepared to address developing regional challenges in the Indo-Pacific region’, and also to accomplish the objectives of regional stability, peace and security’.

“Whether it’s our Pacific Step Up, our engagement with regional neighbours, or our deepening cooperation with partners new and old, our focus must be on the Indo-Pacific – it’s where we live and where our interests are.

“Our new strategic defence policy ensures that the Indo-Pacific is front of mind for our ADF and is prioritised in the decisions we make on our deployments and our force structure and capabilities,” he said.

Referring to the recent bushfire season and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said that these ‘have introduced a further dimension to what national defence entails, now and into the future’.

“Defence thinking, strategy and planning have shifted gears to respond to our constantly changing and deteriorating strategic and defence environment,” Minister Reynolds said.

“Australia’s security environment is changing quickly, with militarisation, disruptive technological change and new grey zone threats making our region less safe.

That’s why this Government will invest in more lethal and long-range capabilities to hold adversary forces and infrastructure at risk further from Australia, including longer-range strike weapons, offensive cyber capabilities and area denial capabilities.”

2020 Defence Strategic Update also stated the expanding of Australia’s air and ocean lift capability to ascertain quick response.

Australia’s defence industry is developing with more than 4,000 organizations employing roughly 30,000 staff. An added 11,000 Australian organizations directly benefit from Defence investment and, when further downstream providers are incorporated, the benefits stream to roughly 70,000 laborers.

This planning would prioritise Australia’s immediate region – ranging from the north-eastern Indian Ocean, through maritime and mainland South East Asia to Papua New Guinea and the South West Pacific.

As a consequence, ‘the new strategic policy will require force structure and capability adjustments, which are focused on the region, responding to grey-zone challenges that threaten our national interests, the possibility of high-intensity conflict and domestic crises,’ the Update highlighted.