Defence is now front and centre of the election campaign after the Opposition promised to boost Australia’s military by 21 billion dollars by 2030. The pledge would increase Australia’s defence spending from 2 to 2.5 per cent of GDP going above and beyond Labor’s commitment.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00This is long overdue for the Coalition.
00:05Expectations have been growing that this announcement would be coming soon,
00:11but it's waited until just before Anzac Day for this rather large spending commitment,
00:17$21 billion, as you say, over the next five years.
00:21The opposition saying that it will get the level of defence spending
00:25to roughly 2.5% of overall gross domestic product by the year 2030.
00:32That's a significant jump from the current amount of 2% of GDP.
00:38The opposition leader made this announcement standing alongside his shadow defence minister,
00:43Andrew Hastie, himself a Special Forces veteran,
00:46and someone that commentators say has been missing for much of the national set pieces
00:53in the Coalition's election campaign.
00:56Let's now hear from Peter Dutton.
00:59We need to keep our country safe, and if we're to preserve peace and stability in our region,
01:04if we're to be a good ally with our partners, then Australia needs to invest in defence.
01:09As defence minister, I was incredibly proud of the work that we did around AUKUS in particular,
01:14the money that we put into Red Spice, which helped defend us against cyber security attacks,
01:19attacks on our banking systems, on infrastructure, critical infrastructure like water and sewerage.
01:25And we need to make sure that whatever confronts us over the course of the coming decades,
01:31we can stare down.
01:32And what's the Prime Minister up to today, Andrew?
01:36Well, the focus today will very much be on the Coalition's long-awaited defence policy.
01:42But for the Prime Minister, his campaign is again on the housing policies that Labor would like to implement.
01:49Today, specifically, the Prime Minister is unveiling a $78 million package
01:55to do with getting tradies qualified more quickly to help build those houses
02:01that Labor has talked about during this election.
02:04But of course, the government is also challenging the opposition to detail the specifics of the savings
02:11it would make to cover the cost of its huge $21 billion package announced today.