Increasing recruitment, securing trade routes, and boosting energy supply are among the biggest issues in the Australian Defence Force, according to a major review.
The final report of a strategic defence review, which was released by the Albanese government on April 24, warned that Australia’s geographical isolation is no longer a significant strategic advantage that can provide defence enough time to prepare for an incoming attack in the “missile age.”
The review suggested that Australia needs to plug its workforce and capability gaps to discourage foes.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government was seeking to “reshape” the armed forces to prepare Australia for any conflicts over the next three decades.
“We are trying to re-imagine an army which is more mobile and can project, and that’s in the context of a set of very challenging circumstances which we see in the world today,” he said on Tuesday.
“It’s in that context that we are thinking about a defence force which is more able to project than we have in the past.”
He also reiterated that Australia is facing the most complex set of strategic circumstances since the end of World War II.
“It’s urgent. It’s definitely urgent,” he told 3AW Mornings Radio.
“There is a sense of urgency about the circumstances that we’re facing and it’s important, therefore, that we take a new direction. I want to make clear we have a wonderful defence force and the posture that we’ve had has served us well over a very long period of time.”
Responding to Beijing’s accusation that Australia was hyping up the threat narrative, he said that it is “not what we’re seeking to do.”
“As we spoke about Australia’s posture going forward and the mission of the Australian Defence Force in the future, at the heart of it is providing or making our contribution, along with our partners, to the collective security of our region, of the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
“And that’s really where Australia is coming from. What we want to do as a nation is to provide and to make our contribution to the collective security of our region, understanding that that’s really where the defence of Australia lies.”
Charles Darwin University defence expert Victor Abramowicz said universities and TAFE are crucial for upskilling, adding that the government needs to significantly increase education and training that is focused on national security.
Abramowicz said years of funding cuts had decreased the ability of tertiary institutions to attract students and researchers, driving them to place more emphasis on signing foreign students to remain sustainable.
“Ultimately, national security touches on almost everything including food fuel, educational, and trade security,” he said.
“The review gives a whole-of-nation blueprint, but we are going to need whole-of-nation funding changes to make it real.”
