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With the election just a few weeks away and defence and national security barely rating a mention despite the best efforts of both Beijing and Moscow, we asked each of the Defence Connect team what they’d like to see out of the next federal government.
As Australia heads towards the 3 May 2025 federal election, the campaign to date has been defined by clear differences between the major parties, with housing affordability, cost-of-living pressures and energy emerging as dominant issues.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking a second term for Labor, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton leads the Liberal-National Coalition’s push to return to government after a single term in opposition, the first time in nearly a century.
Housing has become a key concern, particularly for younger Australians. Labor has promised to invest AU$10 billion to build 100,000 new homes over eight years, with assistance for first home buyers to purchase with just a 5 per cent deposit.
The Coalition, on the other hand, has focused on curbing demand by proposing a temporary ban on foreign buyers, reducing migration and offering mortgage interest tax deductions for new builds, as well as the signature Coalition policy of allowing young Australians to access up to AU$50,000 from their superannuation funds to top up their first housing deposit.
Elements of Dutton’s campaign has been likened to that of US President Donald Trump, with an emphasis on crime, immigration and seeking efficiencies in public sector spending, key focal points that critics argue that this populist approach could risk alienating centrist voters.
As early voting opens on 22 April, Australians are faced with two visions for the nation’s future, centred around affordability and national security a distant thought, which, given recent revelations about Russia’s courting of Indonesia and a growing number of Chinese attempts to intimidate and coerce Australia, continue to shock many in the defence and national security ecosystem.
With these factors in mind, we asked each of the Defence Connect team, beginning with Momentum Markets’ government affairs manager and senior defence and security analyst Steve Kuper his top three priorities/wish list items for the next government.
1. An independent audit and analysis program
I know, I know, not another audit/analysis program that will cause the department to “go slow” and further delay the delivery of capability. That is not what I am suggesting at all.
Rather, we need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, accordingly we need to conduct a few thorough, targeted independent audits/analysis investigations of key areas, namely:
- The “tooth-to-tail” ratio of the individual services of Australian Defence Force – focusing on weeding duplicated and superfluous roles, “overprogramming” of the uniformed services (what many describe as too many chiefs and not enough Indians) to maintain a balance between experience and youthful innovation, creating a lean command structure that emphasises material warfighting capability.
- Working with the United States and the United Kingdom to conduct a detailed analysis of the wartime consumables (munitions, spare parts, medical supplies, energy supplies, etc) used in operations in Ukraine, Israel and the Red Sea to identify minimum viable “war stocks” in the event of conflict with a great power to establish “AUKUS Pillar 3” - Industrial Cooperation Framework to rebuild the industrial bases in each country to supply those war stocks based on minimum stockpile requirements).
- An analysis of existing and in-delivery platforms to identify how, when and where they can have additional firepower added to them with little-to-no delay to delivery and negligible cost impact (key programs e.g. Hunter Class frigate program, including analysis of how to accelerate the delivery timeline) and implement with haste.
2. Establish a mobilisation taskforce
This one is fairly self-explanatory, but we desperately need to bring together experts from across the nation to establish a national “mobilisation taskforce” designed to identify and present solutions to key national economic, political, societal and security roadblocks that could hinder mobilisation efforts.
A central component of this, should be an open, consistent conversation with the Australian public to ensure investment in the process, procedures and prospective outcomes of national mobilisation, both the challenges and the opportunities it would present to the Australian public.
3. Increase defence spending (duh!)
Again, this one is self-explanatory, but as I have long argued, simply throwing more money at a problem that is very clearly broken won’t solve the problem, it is the definition of insanity – there I said it.
When coupled with efficiency efforts and “squeezing every penny” can maximise the impact of defence spending as it stands, however, it goes without saying that if we expect to operate a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines alongside a conventional military, Australia is going to have to increase our national defence spending.
That being said, we need to see a credible and deliverable road map to get Australia’s existing defence spending, which sits at roughly 2.03–2.05 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 2.5–3 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade as a floor for future spending.
With the 2030s only to build on the economic, political and strategic turmoil close to home, this floor of 2.5–3 per cent should establish the foundation from which to build to 5 per cent of GDP by the end of the 2030s.
Get involved with the discussion and let us know your thoughts on Australia’s future role and position in the Indo-Pacific region and what you would like to see from Australia’s political leaders in terms of partisan and bipartisan agenda setting in the comments section below, or get in touch at
