Australia is facing the most complex and serious strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War. The wars in Europe and the Middle East have reminded us that geographically remote conflicts have global consequences, and Australia is not immune.

We have entered a period of escalating strategic competition regionally and globally as authoritarian powers seek to reshape the global order in line with their strategic interests. This has seen increasing contestability in the Indo-Pacific, which threatens to destabilise our region.

Our country is less safe and less secure under Labor. Anthony Albanese does not have the strength or conviction to take difficult decisions in Australia’s national interest.

Uncertain times call for strong leadership. We need a government which will strengthen our Australian Defence Force with the funding and the capabilities required to defend our nation.

We believe that investing in the best capabilities for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is an investment in peace, and that peace is achieved and maintained through a strong army, navy and air force, as well as advanced capabilities including cyber and artificial intelligence.

We believe that Australia needs to work more closely than ever before with our allies and partners to stand up for our interests and values on the international stage to promote stability in a contested world.

We believe that strong and decisive action must be taken to keep Australians safe.

A Dutton Coalition Government will get to work immediately to keep Australians safe against rising threats domestically and internationally, and restore our international reputation as a trusted partner and a principled contributor to the international rules-based order.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Provide more than $21 billion in additional funding to Defence over five years, taking Defence spending as a share of GDP to 2.5 percent within 5 years.
• Within a decade, lift Defence spending to 3 percent of GDP – well ahead of Labor’s projected target of around 2.3 percent.
• Establish the Defence Capability and Acquisition Commission (DCAC) which will be charged with expediting the acquisition and production of defence capability.
• Back our Defence industry sector as a key partner in developing, delivering and sustaining capabilities.
• Reinstate the additional Fourth F-35A Lightning Squadron to bring the fleet of F-35A aircraft to 100.
• Tackle the recruiting and retention crisis to increase the number of ADF personnel.
• Urgently progress the Coalition-initiated AUKUS partnership – the greatest defence initiative in a generation.
• Develop an overarching whole-of-government National Security Strategy to bring together all arms of our national security architecture under a single unified vision.
• Immediately secure the Port of Darwin by facilitating the return of the Port to an Australian Government-approved operator.
• Restore Home Affairs to its rightful place as the pre-eminent domestic national security policy and operations portfolio.

Our Plan

1. Restore Leadership to Defence

Australia is facing the most dangerous strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War. The rules, norms and freedoms which have guaranteed Australia’s peace and prosperity for decades are under unprecedented strain.

Australians are rightly anxious about the dangerous world we are living in. Uncertain times call for strong leadership. But Australia does not have the strength and leadership we need under Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles.

They are out of their depth, have no sense of urgency, and are not serious in responding to the dangerous strategic circumstances facing Australia.

Labor makes great claims about their achievements in Defence. But the facts tell a different story.

Defence spending is stagnant at 2 percent of GDP. Most of their promised funding increases do not come into effect until past the forward estimates – over four years into the future.

In the meantime, important projects to build up our power and lethality have been cut or delayed. Under Labor, over $80 billion worth of Defence projects and programs have been cut, delayed and re-prioritised.

We have a recruitment and retention problem under Labor, with ADF recruitment timeframes skyrocketing to over 300 days.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Provide more than $21 billion in additional funding to Defence over five years, taking Defence spending as a share of GDP to 2.5 percent within five years.
• Within a decade, the Coalition will lift Defence spending to 3 percent of GDP – well ahead of Labor’s projected target of around 2.3 percent.
• Reinstate the Fourth F-35A Lightning Squadron to bring the complement of F-35A aircraft to 100.
• Immediately convene a National Summit bringing together Government, Defence Industry and national security experts to tackle critical defence priorities.
  • The Summit will meet in a closed-door environment to tackle critical defence priorities and challenges until agreements are reached on urgent solutions.
  • The National Summit will respond to the widespread concerns that, under Labor, Australia’s strategic circumstances are not being treated with the sufficient urgency, or the coordination they require between the Defence Department, strategic experts, and Defence Industry.
  • The Summit will be a first, critical step in bringing together the experts and practitioners concerned with Australia’s security to build a national consensus for a concrete plan of action.
• Prioritise funding and commission projects that rapidly increase Australia’s strike and counter-strike capabilities – especially to re-tool the ADF with asymmetric capabilities like missiles, drones, and uncrewed undersea vessels needed to deter a larger adversary.
  • Submissions will be sought from sovereign Defence Industry with the ambition being for proposals that recommend implementation of options within 100 days of contracting.
  • This ambitious call to action will give the Government a comprehensive selection of options that can be delivered quickly and at scale by Australian industry, for Australian war fighters.
• A Dutton Coalition Government will tackle the Defence recruiting and retention crisis by clearing delays, holding senior leadership to account and restoring a sense of shared purpose by recognising the dedication of our hardworking men and women and the importance of their mission.

2. Strengthen Our National Security

Australia needs leadership in an increasingly uncertain world. But under the Albanese Labor Government, Australia is heading in the wrong direction.

From its very first day in office, Labor set about demolishing the national security architecture that served us well and kept Australians safe. The Albanese Labor Government has undermined Australia’s national security by gutting the Home Affairs Portfolio and moving multiple agencies – including the Australian Federal Police and ASIO – into the Attorney-General’s Portfolio.

This means the Minister for Home Affairs is Minister in name only – he or she has no operational agencies to deliver on the counter-terrorism mission they are responsible for.

Our national security agencies have languished under a lack of strategic direction from a weak Prime Minister. Whether it comes to terrorist plots on our shores or foreign naval vessels circumnavigating Australia, Anthony Albanese is just not across the details at a time when Australia most needs him to be.

Uncertain times call for strong leadership and decisive action.

Under the Coalition, there will be clarity around the risks we face and a strategy to deter them.

A Dutton Coalition Government will provide the strong leadership required to keep Australians safe in a dangerous world.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Develop an overarching whole-of-government National Security Strategy, which will serve as a comprehensive guide to what National Security means in the Australian context, defining our objectives and our collective responsibility – across all levels of government, industry, civil society, academia, communities all the way down to the individual.
• Restore Home Affairs to its rightful place as the pre-eminent domestic national security policy and operations portfolio, bringing together the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and the Australian Institute of Criminology.
• Work to ensure our supply chains are robust to build our resilience to future shocks.
• Immediately secure the Port of Darwin by facilitating the return of the Port to an Australian Government-approved operator.

3. Back Defence Industry

The current approach to Defence Capability and Acquisition is time-consuming, expensive and crippling to Industry.

It is critical that we have the best minds, skills and experience to lead the delivery of state-of-the-art and future capability solutions for the ADF.

While the support and strength of our allies abroad can be leveraged locally, it remains fundamental that we implement the right framework to ensure we can get the right capability for the men and women of the ADF, while building our national resilience by supporting the development of key capabilities – the consumables of war – we need right here in Australia utilising local industry.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Establish the Defence Capability and Acquisition Commission (DCAC) which will be charged with expediting the acquisition and production of Defence capability.
  • The best way to shape and supercharge procurement policy is to bring experienced leaders from across industry to the table to collaborate in the process.
  • DCAC will be empowered to accelerate procurement decisions including by engaging in ‘smart buyer’ like arrangements for innovative solutions, rather than complex tendering processes.
  • Tendering and decision-making processes will be dramatically simplified, targeting significant improvement in the process, making our Defence investment go further.
• Continue to develop Sovereign Capability
  • Through DCAC, reform tender processes to require and increase Australian small and medium Defence Industry participation. Clarify the definition of ‘sovereignty’ so that Australian businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and investors can start up, scale and deliver the capability required.
  • Commit Defence to support growth and expansion of sovereign Australian Defence Industry through targeted partnerships which contract with Australian businesses to acquire capability and help promote those businesses, and exports, to international markets.

4. Get AUKUS Back on Track

The former Coalition Government entered into the AUKUS trilateral security partnership with the UK and USA, the most important change in our approach to regional security in generations. AUKUS complements our efforts to build a network of international partnerships to keep Australia and our region safe.

The first major initiative under AUKUS is a trilateral program to support Australia in acquiring at least eight nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

Our collaboration with AUKUS partners will also underpin a major leap in cutting-edge advanced capabilities, including cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum, undersea technologies, hypersonics, electronic warfare and defence innovation.

Despite inheriting the AUKUS agreement for Australia’s future nuclear submarine fleet from the Coalition, Labor has failed to adequately invest in AUKUS, failed to drive the initiative with the speed required by AUKUS, and failed to provide the political leadership that AUKUS demands.

AUKUS is a no-fail mission for Australia’s present and future national security. It must be progressed with the highest level of urgency and expertise to deliver the capability of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia. This agenda is already dragging thanks to the inertia of the Albanese Government, which has not gone unnoticed by our allies.

A Dutton Coalition Government will:

• Reinvigorate the AUKUS trilateral security partnership with the UK and USA established by the former Coalition Government by providing much-needed political leadership, increasing investment and encouraging Australian entrepreneurship and innovation.
• Establish an AUKUS National Chair to coordinate government and industry collaboration, drive outcomes, and boost the wider AUKUS enterprise – including the advanced capabilities under AUKUS Pillar 2.

The Choice

Under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles, Australia is facing a crisis.

We have a recruiting crisis – we can’t get enough Australians into uniform.

We have a retention crisis – we can’t keep enough good people in uniform.

And we have a readiness crisis – we’re not ready to meet the dangerous circumstances off our shores.    

In less than three years, Richard Marles has presided over more than $80 billion in cuts and delays to the Defence Budget.

Let’s not forget that the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Governments cut $18 billion from Defence and drove investment down to 1.56 percent of GDP – the lowest level since 1938.

The Coalition restored Defence investment to 2 percent of GDP.

It was the Coalition that established AUKUS – one of the most significant defence agreements in our nation’s history and vital to Australia’s long-term security.

Labor likes to talk about an increase to Defence spending, but the truth is that the Albanese Government has kicked additional funding well into the forward estimates – allowing them to talk about Defence but not deliver at a critical time.

This is despite the bipartisan agreement that Australia is facing our most dangerous strategic environment since the end of the Second World War. Our strategic warning time has elapsed.

In contrast, a Dutton Coalition Government will take our National Security seriously with over $21 billion of additional funding to Defence over five years, to lift Defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP within five years.

And we will further increase Defence spending to 3 percent of GDP within a decade.

Only a Dutton Coalition Government will provide the strength and leadership Australia desperately needs in Defence and national security.

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