Hours before the federal government’s latest National Defence Strategy was released, a morning presenter on ABC News Radio asked if the extra $53 billion in reported military spending would be enough to “satisfy the US”.
Similarly, the Financial Review’s foreign affairs and defence reporter, Michael Read, noted that the $53 billion figure “falls well short of the demands made by US President Donald Trump”. At the Guardian, part of a headline read: “plan still short of Trump’s demands”. Political editor Tom McIlroy uncritically regurgitated the defence minister’s talking points before highlighting only that the Liberal Party thinks more money should be thrown at the generals.
So it was clear in advance that the content of the National Defence Strategy would, by and large, be irrelevant. The ruling class and its hired propagandists were all on board Labor’s militarist train. And any suggestion that Trump and US imperialism ought to be resisted, rather than accommodated, would not have needed censoring or editing out—the thought just didn’t enter anyone’s mind. The only dissent to yet more spending on weapons of mass destruction came from the war-hawk right, who think that the ALP can’t be trusted to spend wisely.
Yet anyone throwing a critical eye over the document would immediately be struck by the audacity of the propaganda. The government previously said it was spending at least $368 billion on nuclear submarines and undertaking a “whole-of-nation effort” to defend “the global rules-based order”. That order, it was not subtly insinuated, was absolutely central to Australian security and prosperity, but threatened by a belligerent China. Critics of this outrageous military buildup were dismissed as Beijing’s useful idiots, or even proxies.
Now, the new National Defence Strategy casually announces that the rules-based order is “in transition”. Funnily enough, this reality also calls for increased military spending. Anyone not living in a cave for the last year will note the evasion here. Why is the order in transition? That’s the Republican elephant in the room, as Trump creates chaos worldwide while his secretary of state openly lampoons the so-called order.
According to this demented Labor Party document, however, the Australia-US alliance “contributes to the peace and stability of the region”. Were the people who wrote this on drugs? It probably wouldn’t matter if they were, because no-one in the political class or the media seems the slightest bit interested in challenging the government on this laughable fairytale of Trump-led, Albanese-endorsed, peace and stability.
The reality, of course, is that there is today no greater destabilising force in international relations than the United States. There is no greater threat to peace in South-East Asia than the White House belligerents, who are emboldened, rather than tempered, by their unfailing allies in Canberra. And the only military threat to the Australian mainland is the one created by the government’s all-or-nothing partnership with Washington. As we noted three years ago on the release of the Defence Strategic Review:
“The single biggest contributor to the threat of an inter-imperialist conflict in East or South-East Asia is the US military’s aggressive forward positioning as it tries to maintain regional dominance over China. Any specific threat to Australia emanating from this situation will primarily be a function of Canberra partnering with Washington in a war against Beijing.”
The US military views this continent as little more than an “unsinkable US aircraft carrier”. You get the sense that this is well understood among those running the country, but that the ruling class here has made its bed with the US empire, for better or worse, as it previously did with the British Empire. If that’s the case, no sacrifice will be too great if push comes to shove with China. But the sacrifice will be on workers, not capitalists—and certainly not on the drafters of documents like this.
The Coalition government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update projected ten-year military spending of $575 billion. At the time, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a pro-militarist think tank, estimated that the outlay represented an increase of 87 percent on the Defence Department’s previous budget.
The Labor government’s 2024 National Defence Strategy boosted spending by another 33 percent, committing $330 billion in new investment over the decade to 2034 and increasing overall funding to the Department of Defence and the Australian Signals Directorate to $765 billion over the same period.
Now, there’s yet another $50+ billion. Yet the voices of mainstream Australian media and political circles can do nothing but wonder if it’s enough to satisfy the leader of global fascism. That’s how far the centre has now drifted.
