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Australia must change its national mindset from “Lucky Country” lethargy to urgency, according to comments from former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Rudd made the comments in a 10 September address to the National Press Club of Australia, titled “Navigating Australia’s future in an uncertain world”.
Rudd argued that Australia has become too complacent and risk-averse to respond effectively to the unprecedented levels of strategic, economic and technological disruption it faces.
“First, the global strategic, economic and technological forces now bearing down on this nation are of an order of magnitude, severity and complexity that is unprecedented in our postwar history,” he said.
“Second, we can navigate these changes successfully, but it will require a radical change in our national psychology – a new sense of national urgency, combined with a new, vital sense of shared national purpose. The alternative is to slide into becoming a second-rate country. Because that requires no effort at all.
“And third, we are more than capable of rising to this challenge. We have the talent and the resources; the only question is, do we have the national imagination?
“We are now on borrowed time. I still hear Australians consoling themselves with the view that we punch above our weight. The truth is that it’s a long, long time since we did. If in fact that was ever the case.”
Key points from Rudd’s address argued that Australia must shift from a price-taker to price-setter mentality, from technology users to technology creators, miners to refiners and manufacturers, dependence to greater national resilience.
“We need a radical change in our national mindset. From accepting the terms delivered to us by the rest of the world to actively carving out our own terms of engagement,” he said.
“From merely using the world’s leading technologies to claiming our place among the creators of those technologies.
“From being the world’s best miners to becoming the world’s best refiners and manufacturers of world-class products.
“From being a branch office for global institutions financial instructions to becoming the financial capital of the Indo-Pacific. From being price-takers to becoming price-setters.
“The biggest thing obstructing us is our national mindset.
“As a people we have become so risk-averse that we fail to comprehend that the even greater risk is standing still and trying in vain to preserve the status quo.”
Rudd highlighted complications facing Australia as China rapidly expands its military, economy, manufacturing base, research capability and technological leadership. As well as how this relates to US–China artificial intelligence and global leadership competition.
“There are three sets of radical changes now reshaping our national security that demand radical new approaches to our national resilience.
“The rise and rise of China at a time when America continues to debate what sort of global power it wants to be; the AI revolution, replete with great risks and equally great opportunities; and the proliferation and intensification of extreme weather events due to rapidly accelerating climate change.
“All three of these are unfolding simultaneously – everything, everywhere, all at once.”
Rudd also argued that the Australian defence industry should become a pillar of national resilience. He endorsed the government’s move towards 3 per cent of gross domestic product for defence by 2033, while arguing Australia must be prepared to spend more if strategic conditions further deteriorate.
“Our alliance with the United States remains a force multiplier for Australian defence needs,” he said.
“It supports Australia in defence technology, at the forefront of the next-generation of asymmetric capabilities. In cyber defences, amid ever-compounding cyber insecurity. In intelligence, to track the unpredictable changes in our regional circumstances and ultimately in deterrence through our mutual defence obligations under ANZUS. These are not trivial. They are not sentimental. They remain material.
“We must also re-embrace national self-reliance to anticipate the full range of future uncertainties. This is why AUKUS is essential. First, it provides Australia with sovereign capabilities through a fleet of Attack Class submarines unrivalled in the Indo-Pacific. We will first buy them, and then build our own, indigenising this critical capability in Australian hands.
“Second, AUKUS Pillar 2 offers Australia’s defence industry virtually untrammelled opportunities to collaborate with American firms and access the massive scaling opportunities of the US defence market.
“Minister Conroy’s Defence Industry Development Strategy lays out in crystal-clear terms Australia’s defence industrial base needs for the future. It’s a great strategy. Responsibility now lies with the Defence Delivery Agency for its implementation.
“For that reason, for example, Austal and its American subsidiary in Mobile, Alabama – which is now America’s fourth-largest shipbuilder – must remain in Australian hands. Austal America is the most profitable part of the Australian company. And it integrates Australia with next-generation American shipbuilding. Austal, ASC and others will be essential to the wider re-industrialisation of Australia.
“Third, all this requires a robust defence budget. This year’s National Defence Strategy lifts annual defence funding to 3 per cent of GDP, using NATO’s methodology, by 2033. The prime minister is to be congratulated for this against the many competing priorities the government has faced.
“Australia needs to remain open to further defence expenditure in response to our changing strategic circumstances. The defence budget will also need to accommodate revolutionary new manufacturing approaches, such as 3D printing, to build more of what we need right here. This will require ongoing vigilance.
“Fourth, we must continue to widen our diplomatic and defence collaboration across the region and the world as this materially shapes our national security environment. The prime minister has played a central role in negotiating new security treaties with PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Nauru.
“Defence Minister Marles has led this engagements with India, Japan, Korea and NATO. Our defence treaty relationship with Japan should be elevated.
Rudd outlined seven priority industries that should receive coordinated government support, including artificial intelligence and quantum, biotechnology, energy and renewables, critical minerals and rare earths, defence industry, automotive manufacturing and financial services.
Australia can remain a first-rank nation, but only if it acts with the urgency of a country facing a fundamentally changed strategic and economic environment, according to the address.
“Incrementalism will no longer work for Australia. Urgency must be our national watchword if we are to navigate our future as an independent, prosperous and resilient nation,” he said.
“I remain profoundly optimist about our country’s future. We are a good people; we have a great history. And we can have an even greater destiny. But only if we now seize it with both hands.
“And without, once again, simply sinking into the mire of petty partisan rancour.”
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