The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his government's defence budget after a senior trump administration figure called on Australia to boost its spending to three per cent of GDP. Currently, it's projected to reach 2.3 per cent of GDP within a decade. It comes after Mr Albanese confirmed he's open to Australian troops joining European countries in Ukraine, if a peace deal is struck with Russia.
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00:00Elbridge Colby, he's set to become a leading figure in the Trump administration's defence
00:07department.
00:08He essentially believes that the Albanese government needs to increase or ramp up its
00:13spending in the defence space and he'd like that figure to sit at about 3% of the economy
00:19or gross domestic product.
00:22It currently sits at 2.02% which equates to around $54 billion a year but that spending
00:30is on the rise, set to hit about $100 billion by the middle of next decade.
00:36Essentially what this money is going towards is a lot of new equipment, whether that be
00:41nuclear powered submarines, long range missiles and even naval vessels.
00:46This call from the United States is a similar one to what we heard last week with Washington
00:51calling on its partners in Europe and its NATO allies to lift their proportion of spending
00:59on the military to up to 5% which really is a very big figure indeed.
01:05Ultimately this morning the Prime Minister was asked to respond about whether he'd heed
01:09those calls from the US and this was his response.
01:12Look, we determine our policy.
01:16We determine our policy and our defence policy is to increase our defence expenditure.
01:22That's what we're doing and unlike the former government that made announcements with no
01:27money to back it up, we back it up with real dollars, real investment and real assets.
01:33In recent weeks we've seen Chinese naval vessels moving around the coast of Australia and even
01:39holding live fire drills which was, or took I should say, the government by surprise.
01:46We've also seen some turbulence on the world stage, especially in Washington where Donald
01:52Trump announced that he would be withdrawing or freezing aid to Ukraine and indeed no longer
01:59sharing crucial intelligence with that partner.
02:05Ultimately it's within this environment that we can expect more of a focus on national
02:10security issues.
02:12The Prime Minister, as we know, was widely expected to call an election this weekend.
02:18That decision though is in the balance because of course there is a natural disaster on its
02:24way.
02:25Cyclone Alfred set to hit southeastern Queensland and northern New South Wales over the next
02:3148 hours.
02:33The Prime Minister this morning leaving the door open to holding an election.
02:39I'm focused as much as some people here are focused on something else, I'm focused on
02:43the needs of Australians.
02:45This isn't a time for party politics, I'm just focused on doing my job and governing
02:52and that's something I've been focused on since the 23rd of May 2022 when I was sworn
02:59in as Prime Minister.
03:02Whether an election is called is ultimately dependent, you could say, on the severity
03:06of the cyclone.
03:08Speaking with Labor sources more generally, they say they'd prefer to fight the election
03:13on domestic issues, things such as the cost of living and health, which as we know is
03:17so crucial to Australians across the nation.
03:20I do have to say though, in this febrile global environment, I do think that both community
03:27safety and national security will play a bigger role than perhaps could have been anticipated
03:31even a couple of months ago.