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Room for defence, firearms manufacturing growth in New South Wales, confirms Chanthivong
There’s room for growth in the manufacturing of defence technology, including firearms, according to comments from NSW Minister ...
A window into Defence, government’s obsession with secrecy and the fanaticism of silence
Silence is king in the Australian government and Department of Defence. Those who have had dealings with either group can attest t...
Cyber war: Pro-Iranian hackers vow to fight on despite a fragile ceasefire with the US
A civilisational apocalypse in Iran may have been averted for now, but despite the ceasefire now in place, hacktivists and state-l...
HMAS Stuart on display in multinational exercise
HMAS Stuart has played an imperative role in the final stage of Exercise Kakadu, with crews praising the frigate’s contribution ...
‘The short answer is yes, we could absolutely deploy’: ADF chief on the Strait of Hormuz
Australia’s Chief of Defence has said that sending a warship to the Strait of Hormuz could “absolutely” be done, if called u...
Feature Insights
Compare the pair: Australia’s 1987 force v the DSR force
As the global geopolitical and strategic environment continues to devolve, becoming increasingly unpredictable and dangerous, maybe it is time to...
June 23 2025
Might makes right? War crimes, the ADF, and the challenge of responsibility
Is it finally time for a royal commission into the conduct of Australian special forces during operations in Afghanistan? One expert says yes, but understanding the nature of...
June 20 2025
Australia’s Defence spending has shades of Oliver Twist
Opinion: Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Philip Pyke OAM warns that amid rising threats, the Albanese government’s defence underinvestment leaves Australia vulnerable,...
June 19 2025
Cancelled Trump meeting a relief to PM Albanese, but bad news for Australian security
Opinion: Donald Trump’s cancelled meeting has spared Anthony Albanese a politically awkward encounter, but cost Australia a key chance to advance AUKUS, strengthen US...
June 18 2025
Beijing emboldened as latest Taiwan war games highlight ‘systemic weaknesses’
Beijing’s latest round of war games has, it believes, “highlighted” major “systemic weaknesses” it believes will make the United States less...
June 17 2025
Strategic policy expert calls on Australia to ‘be very realistic’ in confronting regional, global challenges
As a middle power whose relative power is declining, being overshadowed by the ascendency of emerging regional and global powers, Australia is being warned to take a more...
June 16 2025
What do we need? PM reinforces platforms defend the nation, not arbitrary figures, so why have we gone backwards?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has responded to growing questions about the nation’s defence spending, reinforcing his belief that platforms and capabilities defend...
June 12 2025
How to break a nation – without firing a shot
As the old saying goes, “there is more than one way to skin a cat” and breaking a nation like Australia, while difficult, isn’t impossible and doing it...
June 11 2025
Deterrence and the 2024 National Defence Strategy – what else is missing?
Opinion: The 2024 National Defence Strategy marks a significant shift in aligning Australia’s defence posture with a more contested strategic environment, centred on a...
June 10 2025
Facing a perfect storm: Australia remains all at sea amid mounting geopolitical, economic pressures
The world we once knew is now well and truly a thing of the past and Australia has been slow in responding to the myriad of economic, political, security and social...
June 09 2025
Divesting from Defence: Australia’s zero risk policy is killing domestic innovation
Queensland’s AEP Engineering owner, Mick McMillan, is a very public face for many small-to-medium defence suppliers across Australia.
June 05 2025
It’s all in the strategy: Expert warns as debate about defence spending heats up
As debate over Australia’s defence spending intensifies, a glimmer of clarity emerged: strategic policy expert Sam Roggeveen has challenged the alignment between our...
June 04 2025
Budgeting for an enhanced ready force
Opinion: If the strategic environment is driving an enhanced need to bulk up the capabilities of the ready force, where will the money come from to do so? And just as...
June 03 2025
Shirking our responsibility? PM pushes back against US request to increase defence spending
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has resisted the Trump administration’s pressure to rapidly lift Australia’s defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP amid rising...
June 02 2025
Report: Australia can learn a lot from Finland about national preparedness
It may seem a long bow to pull that a smaller nation like Finland can teach Australia about national self-defence, but nothing could be further from the truth.
May 30 2025
Saving the Titanic: Ministerial defence priorities in the government’s new term
Opinion: If you choose a metaphor for Defence in the Labor government’s second term, it might be the Titanic, warns Griffith Asia Institute’s Dr Peter Layton.
May 29 2025
Australia’s nuclear moment: Time to break the taboo
Opinion: Anthony Albanese’s victory on 3 May 2025 marked a crossroads for Australian national security. With a secured majority, Albanese can reshape Australia’s...
May 28 2025
Rethinking the choice: Why Australia needs both a balanced and a focused force
Opinion: The rapidly deteriorating geopolitical and strategic environment has been used to legitimise the dramatic shift in Australia’s defence policy and posture...
May 27 2025
5 elections in 2 months reveal startlingly familiar electoral interference playbooks
Vote early, vote often? Elections in Portugal, the Philippines, Romania, Canada, and Australia have revealed a common thread of tactics to influence elections around the...
May 26 2025
Shortsighted decision making must end or risk it all
Opinion: In the face of escalating global threats and strategic uncertainty, Andrew Wallace MP argues that Australia must abandon short-term political thinking and urgently...
May 22 2025
