With Donald Trump overturning assumptions about international order, we must re-examine the fundamentals of our foreign and defence policies. Former Senator and submariner Rex Patrick proposes four ideas to advance the debate.

At 9:30 this morning a number of Defence luminaries and experts will gather at the National Press Club for an invite only ‘Sovereignty and Security Forum’ organised by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to debate what needs to happen in response to Trump’s “America First” doctrine.

As a former Senator and recognised expert on Australian defence policy, especially submarine procurement, I’ve been invited to attend and will take the opportunity to advance four major ideas for discussion.

First, the defence of Australia must be priority one.

In a rapidly changing world where alliances are fraying and major challenges may emerge quickly, Australia must focus on our own defence in the near to medium term. Contributions to alliances and ambitions for capabilities decades away must be lesser priorities. We must focus on the here and now.

This means our defence capabilities should be primarily focussed on safeguarding Australia’s territorial integrity; patrolling and safeguarding our maritime approaches and sea lines of communication; protecting key infrastructure including the large minerals and energy facilities in northwest Australia and our telecommunication links. 

We especially need a larger, more capable air force, greater long range missile strike capabilities and ballistic missile defence. We need to understand that mass has a quality of its own. Less costly but more numerous weapons platforms are the way to go. 

Spending hundreds of billions on a handful of nuclear submarines  that skews the balance of the ADF is detrimental and not cost effective.

Second, we need an urgent effort to build Australia’s national resilience and enhance self-reliance, including a credible national fuel stockpile and acquiring a substantial Australian-owned strategic merchant fleet. 

It’s a completely ridiculous state of affairs that Australia has less than a month of fuel reserves and the Albanese government’s plan for a strategic fleet has shrunk to a trial program of just two vessels. 

It makes no sense to spend billions on defence while the foundations of our national economic life are left so fragile and vulnerable to disruption.

Even if the precise amount is uncertain, we have to face the fact that if Australia is to have a sovereign Defence Force while responding changing geo-strategic circumstances, we’ll need to spend more on defence. 

That means politicians have to accept the need for economic and tax reform, specifically to address the erosion of our national revenue base over recent decades. Anyone talking about national defence isn’t serious unless they address this question. 

We need to do more value adding onshore in Australia. We shouldn’t just be the world’s quarry; we need to back Australian manufacturing. We must also make sure we collect our fair share of tax from multinationals and also from our mineral and gas exports.

There’s no point in pouring additional funds into our defence and national security agencies if it is wasted. We need to stop Defence waste. 

Defence has a long record of multi-billion dollar procurement debacles. A succession of top bureaucrats, generals, admirals and air marshals have spent billions of dollars delivering a trail of wreckage, but none have been sacked.  

Any Defence build-up must be accompanied by fundamental  reform and real accountability within the Defence Department. 

We need to establish a National Defence Procurement Performance Commission, a well-resourced statutory authority with a wide expertise and the full investigatory powers of a royal commission to probe every aspect of defence procurement. 

Such an agency must be able to hold senior officials publicly accountable. Some might say such a body would amount to a Star Chamber, but that’s what we need.

A notable French writer once remarked on the execution of British Admiral John Byng that “it is good to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others“. While not advocating capital punishment for non-performing senior Defence officers and bureaucrats, it’s clear radical measures are required.

Having observed Defence’s performance over many years, including through interrogation of many senior Defence officials at Senate Estimates, I have no doubt Defence needs a substantial purge to clear out the deadwood.

A wide-ranging cull of top brass at Defence would open the way for new and innovative thinking to replace past orthodoxies and allow new leaders to rise, able to achieve the performance required to guarantee Australia’s sovereignty and safety in an ever more uncertain and dangerous world.

Malcolm Turnbull has done Australia a considerable service by pulling together experts for his forum.

For too long debate on Australia’s foreign and defence policy has been constrained by bureaucratic orthodoxy and the bipartisan straitjacket imposed by Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition.

However, the international stage is now changing rapidly and radically in ways that  undermine past assumptions, especially the notion that Australia can enjoy defence on the cheap while relying on ‘a great and powerful friend’ for protection. 

I’ll be looking forward to pressing my ideas in the debate.

https://michaelwest.com.au/turnbull-press-club-summit-trump-2-0-means-its-time-to-strengthen-defence/

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