Yesterday
Australia won’t raid Pacific militaries to plug defence gaps: Conroy
Plans to recruit Pacific Islanders to join the Australian Defence Force are focusing on attracting school leavers with the offer of learning a trade.
- Andrew Tillett
This Month
- Analysis
- Federal budget
The ADF will grow by just 358 people next year. That’s a big problem
If Defence is to attract the 5000 new soldiers, sailors and aviators it desperately needs, it must do a much better job looking after its current ones.
- Andrew Tillett
Defence’s big budget boost four years away, as soldier shortage hits 5000
Despite dire strategic times, defence spending will hover just above 2 per cent for several years before starting to meaningfully rise from mid-2027.
- Andrew Tillett
China wrong on defence flare stoush: Albanese
Beijing now says an Australian navy helicopter was spying on its military in the Yellow Sea.
- Andrew Tillett
FWC, government face pressure to step in over submarines pay stoush
The Albanese government insists that an industrial dispute at submarine builder ASC in Adelaide won’t affect the navy’s ability to deploy the ageing Collins-class submarines.
- Andrew Tillett
Backers of takeover target Austal want Hanwha in the race
Austal shareholders say the opening shots in takeover battle for the defence ship builder have fallen well short of the mark, but granting due diligence would be a start.
- Brad Thompson
- Exclusive
- Defence
Hanwha could face long wait for answer on Austal bid
The Albanese government is likely to prioritise picking a new frigate design over considering a foreign takeover bid for the Perth shipbuilder.
- Andrew Tillett
April
Failure to reopen Australia embassy in Kyiv ‘an embarrassment’
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles visited Ukraine to unveil the package, including drones and air-defence systems, but there was one glaring omission from his trip.
- Hans van Leeuwen and Ronald Mizen
The ‘frightening discussion’ Australia needs to have about China
Defence experts are urging the Albanese government to canvass how the civilian population and industry could be mobilised on a war footing.
- Andrew Tillett
Navy, RAAF face cuts to pay for $330b in new weapons
While the government touts its $330 billion new weapons blueprint, concerns are being raised about programs that have been scrapped.
- Andrew Tillett
Defence’s $330b plan still leaves decade of danger
Defence Minister Richard Marles says Australia faces a “precarious” decade, by the end of which defence spending will be about $100 billion a year.
- Andrew Tillett
AUKUS partners eye adding ‘like-minded’ Japan to counter China
The announcement from the AUKUS defence ministers came as Canada said it was considering joining the pact, signalling concern over threats from China.
- Updated
- Matthew Cranston
China lashes joint war games involving Australia
As AUKUS members prepare to open talks with Japan on joining the pact, China warned against “provocative” destabilisation in the South China Sea.
- Andrew Tillett
It’s Hanwha against the hawks in race for shipbuilder Austal
The Korean conglomerate has made the news plenty of times before and not always in a positive light. Now it wants Australia’s largest defence group.
- Kylar Loussikian
Outcome of China-US great power rivalry uncertain, says Marles
The defence minister also said Labor had inherited a situation where Defence had no money for more than a quarter of what it planned to buy or deliver.
- Andrew Tillett
Sinodinos rockets into corporate world
The former ambassador and minister will chair a Brisbane aerospace company developing superfast rockets for the US.
- Andrew Tillett
Australia locks in $1b defence deal with Germany
The manufacturing deal will create at least 600 jobs in Queensland but was thrown into doubt last year after Labor snubbed the company involved for its own defence contract.
- Updated
- Hannah Wootton
March
- Analysis
- AUKUS
Rule Britannia: How Australia’s military future relies on one UK firm
In naming BAE Systems as the builder of Australia’s submarines, the Albanese government is putting its major shipbuilding eggs in the British defence giant’s basket.
- Andrew Tillett
Australia to spend $5b on UK subs in AUKUS pact
Taxpayers will give the UK government almost $5 billion to subsidise an expansion of British production lines for Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarines.
- Andrew Tillett
Australia joins ‘Drone Coalition’ to help Ukraine fight Russia
Defence will also upgrade ties with the British military, as uncertainty grows over America’s commitment to the war.
- Andrew Tillett
