Category Archives: Australian military

Australia pledges $100m in military assistance to Ukraine as Richard Marles visits

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Deputy prime minister says Australia remains committed to Ukraine’s war effort as it struggles to hold back Russian advances

The Australian government has announced a new $100m assistance package for Ukraine, which includes munitions and military equipment, during a visit to the country by the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles.

Australia’s package will include $50m in military assistance, including $30m towards uncrewed aerial systems, and $15m towards other high-priority equipment such as combat helmets, rigid hull inflatable boats, boots, fire masks and generators.

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Lost luggage leaves New Zealand’s band without instruments for Anzac Day at Gallipoli

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Bags went missing in Dubai floods, with embassy staff only able to retrieve one instrument and a handful of dress uniforms for defence force musicians

Australia’s and New Zealand’s defence forces are once again coming together at Gallipoli – this time to ensure New Zealand’s military band can play on.

The band’s luggage was among thousands of bags lost during last week’s Dubai floods, with embassy staff only able to retrieve one instrument and a handful of dress uniforms ahead of the 25 April dawn service in Turkey.

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Australia needs a plan for war to ‘focus the national mind’, Michael Pezzullo says

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Former secretary of the home affairs department recommends preparation of a ‘war book’ to allocate roles in the event of conflict

Australia needs a comprehensive national plan for war – a “war book” – to coordinate civil and military roles and “focus the national mind” on the possibility of future conflict, the former secretary of the home affairs department Mike Pezzullo has said.

In a speech to an invitation-only security seminar last week, Pezzullo said Australian leaders needed to resurrect a practice adopted in the 1930s and prepare “a war book” which clearly allocated roles and responsibilities in the event of a conflict.

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Australia plans for a ‘less certain’ future in Asia — one where the US may not remain the dominant force

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The US talks of Aukus as ‘binding’ the allies for decades to come, but Richard Marles says Australia must become more ‘self-reliant’

Australia’s defence overhaul has accelerated some projects and cut others and has already prompted a plea from China to abandon a “cold war mentality”.

But as the dust settles on a plan to increase overall military spending, the Albanese government has also sent some significant signals on how it sees the future of the Indo-Pacific region – and these aren’t exactly how Australia’s top security ally, the US, might see things.

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Labor announces $50bn boost to defence spending as it flags non-citizens may serve in ADF

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Albanese government says overhaul will ensure military can project power further from Australian shores

Australia is pouring an extra $50bn into defence spending over the next 10 years, as part of an overhaul that the federal government says will ensure the military can project power further from its shores.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, has also flagged plans to recruit non-citizens to serve in the Australian defence force to address workforce shortages.

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Australian War Memorial kept ministers in the dark on contracts for $550m redevelopment, audit finds

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In two cases, contracts were split to avoid triggering $1m threshold for ministerial approval, the Australian National Audit Office says

The Australian War Memorial kept ministers in the dark on key details of its controversial $550m redevelopment and failed to manage conflicts of interest, a new audit report has found.

The Australian National Audit Office said the AWM’s advice to ministers lacked “transparency [and] accuracy”, while “in two instances contracts were split” to avoid triggering the $1m threshold for ministerial approval.

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Mona loses Ladies Lounge anti-discrimination case with ‘persons who do not identify as ladies’ to be allowed entry – as it happened

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A search will resume this morning for a woman who went missing while bushwalking at Belmore Falls in New South Wales.

Just after 1pm on Sunday, emergency services were called to Belmore Falls near Robertson after reports a woman had slipped and fallen down a cliff. An extensive search was initiated, but the 20-year-old was not located and the search was suspended at dusk.

We’ve got large multinationals in the supermarket ring who aren’t captured. So I’d like to see this expanded over time.

Woolworths, I think, makes a good point, and that is the code to be extended should be expanded to cover rivals Amazon, Costco and even Chemist Warehouse.

We’ll have more to say on that in coming weeks and months.

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PM says transparency around aid worker’s death ‘in Israel’s interest’ – as it happened

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PM ‘absolutely’ confident supermarket review will reduce prices for consumers

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC News Radio, also weighing in on Craig Emerson’s supermarket review.

Including the Senate review … we’ve already announced our funding of Choice, the consumer organisation, to do quarterly price monitoring, ensuring that consumers know where the best deal is available and using that use of information to drive that competition through the system.

We’ve only got a few supermarkets in Australia and it does concentrate a lot of market power in the hands of the retailers, [so] heavy fines might be the way to go. I certainly wouldn’t stand in the way of that.

And I know many people, particularly in one of the richest cities in the world in Sydney, are doing it incredibly tough when you’ve got the dual hits of both interest rate rises and high inflation.

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US shipyards up to three years behind schedule on submarines as concerns grow for Aukus pact

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Greens senator David Shoebridge says review of shipbuilding program ‘adds to the growing list of reasons why Aukus is likely to fall over’

US shipyards are running up to three years late in building new Virginia-class submarines, despite suggestions from a senior US diplomat that the Aukus pact with Australia will help deter Beijing from seizing Taiwan.

Australia is relying on a US promise to sell it at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s, prior to Australian-made boats starting to enter into service in the 2040s.

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‘Poison portal’: US and UK could send nuclear waste to Australia under Aukus, inquiry told

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Labor describes claims as ‘fear-mongering’ and says government would not accept waste from other nations

Australia could become a “poison portal” for international radioactive waste under the Aukus deal, a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear safety legislation has heard.

New laws to establish a safety framework for Australia’s planned nuclear-powered submarines could also allow the US and UK to send waste here, while both of those countries are struggling to deal with their own waste, as no long-term, high-level waste facilities have been created.

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How do Australian police taskforces get strange names like Tromperie?

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In NSW, you can blame a computer which generates names at random, while in the Northern Territory ‘generic categories’ deliver operations named after rivers and battleships

New South Wales police last week arrested 15 people as part of Strikeforce Wessex – an investigation into alleged organised criminal networks operating “dial-a-dealer” schemes.

But what does Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Great Britain, have to do with drug dealing and mobile phones across Sydney?

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LGBTQI+ intolerance prevalent among Australian air force chaplains, inquiry told

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Military chief says review into chaplaincy found ‘unacceptable views about minority groups, women, LGBTQI+ persons’

Some religious chaplains in the air force hold “unacceptable views about minority groups, women [and] LGBTQI+ persons”, posing a mental health risk to members, the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide has heard.

And part of a review commissioned by the defence department into the air force chaplaincy unit – quietly tabled as evidence to the royal commission – found tension between theology and values, “notably in relation to gender and LGBTI inclusion”.

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Australia politics live: Toyota boss says fuel efficiency standard ‘not a car tax’ as Labor defends secrecy around bill

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Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies

There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.

Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein

Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood

Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia

Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister

Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning

Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women

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UK defence secretary given a ride from Canberra to Adelaide in Australian military fighter jet

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In demonstration of Australia’s air combat capability, Grant Shapps travels in RAAF Super Hornet after meeting with Anthony Albanese

The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has caught a ride in the back seat of an Australian air force fighter jet after meeting with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

The visiting dignitary met with Albanese in Canberra on Thursday before being flown to Adelaide in a FA-18 Super Hornet, according to a report by the ABC.

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Israel must allow humanitarian relief to reach Gaza, Australia and UK say in new joint statement – as it happened

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As part of the latest Aukus developments, Australia will send A$4.6bn to the UK to clear bottlenecks at the Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor production line.

Richard Marles was asked why it costs so much, and why this component needs to be done in the UK. He told ABC News Breakfast:

We made clear a year ago that we wouldn’t be building the nuclear reactors in Australia. They will be built by Rolls Royce at its facility in Derby in the UK and once the sealed reactors are built, they will be taken here to the Osborne Naval ship yard and placed in the submarines which the rest of which will be built here at Osborne.

Building nuclear reactors is difficult to do and in order for this to play out, that facility in Derby, which is building nuclear reactors for Britain’s navy, that needs to be expanded and that is what this contribution is for.

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Australia politics live: Steven Miles says Suncorp Stadium will host Brisbane Olympics opening and closing ceremonies

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‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’

Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.

It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.

Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.

We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.

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Hastie’s defence comments ‘unhinged and misleading’, Conroy says – as it happened

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Ex-cyclone Lincoln could gather strength and redevelop

A massive storm that lashed the Top End with heavy rain could gather strength and redevelop into a tropical cyclone, AAP reports.

We’ve seen all the leaders of major parties say they take on board and accept in the recommendations … but it appears very little has changed on the ground. We still have unlimited and unmonitored alcohol consumption in Parliament House and in the workplace.

That’s why I put to the prime minister random testing could be introduced. Because we know from – even from driving, it’s a deterrent. As soon as you have a risk of getting caught, it changes behaviour.

People have had enough of politicians thinking there’s different standards that apply to them in Parliament House than what applies in other workplaces.

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ADF chief unaware Fijian officer handed senior Australian army role was accused of torture, parliament told

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Angus Campbell tells parliament recently appointed brigade deputy commander Penioni (Ben) Naliva is entitled to presumption of innocence

The chief of the Australian defence force has told a parliamentary committee he was unaware of serious allegations against a Fijian military officer before approving his appointment to an Australian army brigade.

Colonel Penioni (Ben) Naliva, an officer from the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), was named last month as a deputy commander of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli barracks in Brisbane.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation appeal: news companies argue ex-SAS corporal’s case ‘fundamentally flawed’

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Roberts-Smith, 45, is seeking to overturn June defamation trial judgment that found he engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan

News companies defending a defamation appeal launched by Ben Roberts-Smith over reports he engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan have told a court the ex-SAS corporal’s case is “fundamentally flawed”.

The appeal by Roberts-Smith, 45, seeks to overturn his June defamation loss against Nine newspapers and the Canberra Times over 2018 reports on war crimes during the Victoria Cross-recipient’s Afghanistan deployments.

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US military stockpiling supplies in Australia in readiness for any confrontation with China

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American war planners used joint Talisman Sabre exercises to position equipment in northern Victoria

When US and Australian troops practised amphibious landings, ground combat and air operations last year, they drew headlines about the allies deepening defence cooperation to counter China’s growing military ambitions.

But for US war planners preparing for a potential conflict over Taiwan, the high-profile Talisman Sabre exercises had a far more discrete value: they helped create new stockpiles of military equipment that were established in Australia after the drills ended in August, US officials said.

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