Coat of arms

SENATOR THE HON DAVID FAWCETT
Deputy Chair, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

Senator for South Australia

Media Release
24 January 2025

Australians Can’t Trust the Albanese Government on Defence

Defence Industry Minister Conroy was in Adelaide this week on FIVEAA radio making the claim that a Dutton Government would cut $50 billion from the Defence budget.[1]

This directly contradicts public statements from Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie that a Dutton Government will invest more in Defence than Labor—at least 2.4% of GDP.[2] This commitment to increase the Defence budget—not cut—was reiterated in the Coalition’s recently published policy priorities.[3]

Australians should be able to trust a statement from a Minister of the Albanese Government, but as always, you need to check the facts and judge by what they do, not what they say.

The facts according to independent analysts like the Australian Strategic Policy Institute are that under the Albanese Government, “Between 2023-4 and 2025-6, Defence funding, excluding compensation for adverse foreign exchange movements, drops from $154.0 billion to $152.5 billion”.[4]

ASPI highlight that “the urgency of the demands upon Defence is not reflected in the short-term funding provided by the Albanese Government” and “the only increase in the Defence budget over the next three years is compensation for the increased cost of imported military equipment flowing from a fall in the value of the Australian dollar. Excluding this, the core funding of Defence (not including the Australian Signals Directorate) has actually been reduced at a time when unprecedented demands are being placed upon it.”

Hidden behind the Albanese Government announcements about new spending, the fine print in the Budget papers makes it clear that many of these “investments” are really “absorbed measures,” meaning that Defence has not received new funding and has to cut something else that they had planned on doing to fund the announcement.

In essence, the Albanese Government is “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

In practice, the Albanese Government has:

  • Cancelled the fourth squadron of F-35 JSF combat aircraft
  • Cancelled the second regiment of AS9 Huntsmen self-propelled howitzers (LAND 8116)
  • Cancelled medium-range missile defence systems (AIR 6502)
  • Cancelled 2 sea lift and replenishment ships
  • Cut infantry fighting vehicles from 450 to 129 (LAND 400 Phase 3)
  • Cut the Hunter-class frigate project from 9 ships to be built in Australia to 6 (SEA 5000)
  • Cut the Offshore Patrol Vessel project from 12 ships to be built in Australia to 6 (SEA 1180)
  • Reduced the size of the Anzac-class frigate fleet and reduced the scope of upgrades to the remaining ships
  • “Curtailed” the strategic communications satellite (JP9102)
  • Cancelled the naval de-mining project (SEA 1905)

In his radio interview, the Minister further claimed that the Albanese Government’s policies would keep Australia safe and be good for Australian jobs.

In reality, the Chair of the Australian Industry Defence Network in June last year highlighted that: “We are in the valley of death for ship building that we hoped to avoid, land systems that we started discussion on before 2000 have had decisions made and wound down. The future is here and the speed is now. I had hoped to give an uplifting speech on how well industry is doing to meet the speed, and demands of defence, but I don’t receive those phone calls from industry telling me how great businesses are doing. There are numerous challenges”.[5] The Australian Defence Magazine likewise highlights industry figures showing that since the Albanese Government has come to office, there has been a decline in Defence industry workforce.[6]

In fact, not only have the Albanese Government cut naval ship building work already being undertaken in Australia, but they have now committed to go overseas to buy new ships. The first three General Purpose Frigates are to be built offshore and they will be delivered without the world leading anti-ship missile defence capabilities of our current warships.

Less capability, less security and less secure jobs in Australia.

How can Australians, industry and workers trust that they will be more secure under an Albanese Government?

The Albanese Government likes to take credit for “historic milestones” relating to the acquisition of long-range strike missiles. In Senate Estimates, however, Defence Department testimony exposed the fact that this rhetoric doesn’t align with reality.[7] The evidence from Defence highlights that the procurement of these missiles are the culmination of decisions and engineering processes commenced under the Coalition.

While Labor talks a big talk on defence, the constraints on defence funding during their time in office means that a range of critical capabilities are being delayed, reduced or cancelled. Australians really can’t trust the Albanese Government on Defence.

The Coalition will get Australia’s Defence and security back on track.

Ends.

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