Source : BUSINESS NEWS
Peter Dutton has pledged to increase Australia’s defence spending to 3 per cent of the nation’s GDP within a decade if elected next month, in line with US requests.
Mr Dutton formally announced today a $21 billion boost to defence spending over the coming five years; a move that would lift Australia’s investment from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
The Coalition will then continue to increase spending on the nation’s defence, towards a target of 3 per cent within the coming decade.
The move would appease the US – a major Australian defence partner – which in March issued a call for Australia to lift its defence investment to the 3 per cent of GDP mark by 2033-34.
“The main concern the US should press with Australia, consistent with the president’s approach, is higher defense spending,” key defence adviser Elbridge Colby told a US Senate committee.
Australia currently spends around 2 per cent of its GDP on defence. Labor plans to lift this figure to 2.3 per cent, to about $100 billion, by 2033-34.
A 3 per cent investment would represent a defence budget of around $130 billion the same year.
Mr Dutton accused Labor of ripping money out of defence, and Liberal Party defence spokesperson Andrew Hastie said the cost breakdown of the plan would be released before the election.
“The prime minister and the deputy prime minister regularly tell Australians that we live in the most precarious period since the end of the Second World War. Yet, over the last three years, Labor has done nothing about it, other than rip money out of defence, weakening strength and morale,” Mr Dutton said.
“The Coalition will strengthen the Australian Defence Force and support our servicemen and women to keep us safe today and into generations ahead.”
But Mr Dutton told a media conference in Perth today the plan would be funded by repealing Labor’s recently announced income tax cuts; expected to pull around $17 billion from the forward estimates.
The Coalition will also deliver an overarching security strategy for the nation, with Mr Dutton saying it was time “we confronted our new strategic reality”.
The announcements follow a commitment to reinstate a fourth squadron of F35-A joint strike fighters last month; a fleet scrapped under the current government.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles told a breakfast TV program this morning that the Liberals could not be trusted to deliver the funding promised.
“Well, I mean, who knows what the Liberals will actually do,” he said.
“They actually did cut defence spending in their last few years when they were in government.
“They have not given any explanation here … of how that money is going to be raised, what that money is going to be spent on.”
Mr Marles said Labor had delivered the biggest peacetime increase in defence spending in Australia’s history, and would continue to assess its defence spend as a proportion of GDP if re-elected next month.
