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Australia must have an immediate national conversation on what military mobilisation will mean for the public in the event of a conflict, according to information discussed at the recent Land Forces Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition 2026.
The issue of a national conversation was brought forward as a major topic at the recent conference held in Perth earlier this month.
Defence expert and former Royal Australian Navy officer Jennifer Parker was one of the first to raise the issue at the conference during a Women in Defence Association and Ventia strategic panel with WA head of the Office of Defence Industries Linda Dawson, Senator Ellie Whiteaker and Ventia’s Pauline Fitzgerald.
National preparedness is so crucial because it must be a whole of nation endeavour and requires Australian public support, according to Parker.
More broadly, explaining to the Australian public how the world is changing and what this may mean for their way of life helps build national resilience, but can also assist to reduce alarmism around events such as the previous People’s Liberation Army Navy circumnavigation of Australia; according to Parker.
Defence Connect later put the question of the national conversation issue to Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, during a media conference at Land Forces.
“Civil defence preparedness is an important topic that we need to be looking at. It's been referred to in the Defence Strategic Review. It's really something that actually the country hasn't examined much since the end of the Second World War,” Deputy PM Marles said.
“In a contingency, the private sector, the civil sector, works hand in glove with what goes on in terms of defence. And there are countries around the world that do practice this. It’s not to put their economies on that footing all the time, but it is to understand what that would look like and how to practice it. And Finland is probably the country in the world which is best practice in respect of that.
“It's precisely because of this that what we've done is tasked the new Joint Parliamentary Committee on Defence to look at exactly this issue. And so we've given it terms of reference, it will be investigating this during the course of now and into next year, reporting in this term of government.
“And we really look forward to the work that it's doing because this is an area that we need to examine more. They're muscles that we need to exercise more as a nation. And I think it's an important conversation to have and an important area to explore.”
NIOA Group managing director and CEO Robert Nioa, speaking exclusively with Defence Connect, also confirmed that urgency of action is needed for an immediate national conversation on preparedness.
“I think you're always better to have open conversations with the public, particularly around expenditure of public funds. And I think that there are enough countries in the world having open conversations around mobilising the defence industrial base about increasing defence production. I don't think the public in Australia would be particularly surprised to hear Australia following suit,” according to Mr Nioa.
“I think one of the important reasons for that is we do need to increase expenditure on consumables of warfare like munitions. And when you're having to increase budget allocations, much easier to do that if you've got an informed public.
“And then I think that the export element starts to talk to a narrative about economic benefit. And so whilst you're spending more money, you also want to get an economic return, not just a strategic return.
“Strategic return might be that you've got a better magazine depth or amount of munitions on the shelf, but the economic benefit should also be articulated and that is done in order to get the volume we need for ourselves for self-sufficiency… (That economic return and strategic return) it's certainly not articulated well. And we do have a bit of a siloed decision-making process within procurement.
“At the end of the day, Australia's already moving into domestic production and we are increasing like billions of dollars of expenditure on munitions.
“We've got $7 billion worth of foreign military sales cases just between standard missile and Tomahawk. One of the biggest, if not the biggest foreign purchase order that Australia's ever written for munitions. 100 percent of all of that expenditure is going to the US industrial base if we are to get the capability.
“I think it's obvious that there's significant pressure on the supply chain and the US is perhaps likely to supply their own requirements over Australia’s. (If that is the case) we’re not getting the capability, we’re not getting the economic benefit (but) we’re spending the money. And I think we need to be able to think of a better solution.”
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