00:00Well, it was a pretty stark warning, you'd have to say, Joe.
00:05Now, in a sense, this isn't something entirely new.
00:08We have heard these sort of warnings before, but to hear it in such plain language from
00:13the Chief of the Defence Force was certainly pretty arresting.
00:16Look, what the CDF is saying is not that conflict is inevitable or that the north of Australia
00:21will inevitably become a war zone.
00:23What he is saying is that there is now sufficient uncertainty out there about the strategic
00:28landscape that Australia has to prepare for the possibility of launching military missions
00:35off its northern approaches, rather than simply, as we always have previously, going off to
00:40fight distant wars in places like Afghanistan.
00:43In other words, the world is becoming more complex.
00:46Technology has shrunk distances that used to offer pretty surefire protection to us.
00:52And as the tensions that we've seen between, in particular, the US and China rise over this
00:57whole region, Australia has to prepare itself for some of those really dire outcomes.
01:04Let's take a listen to the CDF.
01:06He was speaking at the ASPE conference here in Canberra earlier today.
01:10Perhaps finally, we're having to reconsider Australia as a homeland from which we will conduct
01:17combat operations.
01:19And that, again, is a very different way, almost since the Second World War, about how we think
01:25of national resilience and preparedness of, we may need to operate and conduct combat operations
01:32from this country.
01:34And that's everything from our northern infrastructure, our supply chains.
01:40And PNG's Defence Minister has also spoken.
01:42What did he have to say?
01:45Yeah, an interesting contribution from Billy Joseph, PNG's Defence Minister.
01:49Typically, Joe, ministers from the Pacific are pretty careful about saying anything at
01:53all about China, particularly when it comes to the security space.
01:57Billy Joseph, though, made it pretty clear that as far as his government, or the Marape government,
02:02concerned PNG has made its choice on security matters, and it's decided to go with Australia,
02:08as well as countries like New Zealand and the US, its so-called traditional partners, rather
02:13than with China, which he says is primarily an economic partner for PNG.
02:18So that's exactly what Australian officials, of course, Joe, want to hear.
02:22Interestingly, Billy Joseph also made a bit of a throwaway reference to some of the threats
02:27posed by China as well.
02:28He talked about the People's Liberation Army, Navy circumnavigation of Australia, pointing
02:33out that those ships actually went through PNG's waters as well, saying it was a reminder
02:39of some of the difficulties and threats faced by the region.
02:43That's pretty unusually blunt for a senior minister from a place like PNG.
02:47Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
02:50We all appreciate the threats, you know.
02:52The circumnavigation of Australia by the PLA vessels, it came through our space as well,
02:57and they did some, you know, life drills in the Tasman Sea, and all that.
03:02So we're not, you know, ignorant of what we're dealing with, so, but we have to respect
03:08its sovereign states, how they make this, and as far as how much they want to spend in defence.
03:14And there was another bit of controversy over a defence think tank hosting this event today.
03:19What can you tell us about that?
03:21Yeah, that's right.
03:22This is a controversy over some of the reporting that the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,
03:26which hosted this event today, has done on defence issues.
03:29It warned a few weeks ago that Australia's defence force could become brittle and hollowed out
03:34if the government didn't plough more money into it.
03:37The government's responded furiously to that.
03:39We've already had the prime minister and the defence minister accuse Aspie of doing shoddy work.
03:44Today, Pat Conroy, the defence industry minister, perhaps went even further,
03:49suggesting that the think tank had been guilty of making up its own facts,
03:53suggesting that it was biased politically in some way and demanding that it overhaul its methodology
04:00when it comes to these sort of reports.
04:02So, clearly, a pretty extraordinary spray here from Pat Conroy.
04:06Aspie's response today is simply to say that it is not a partisan organisation,
04:11that it's focused simply on the question of what Australia needs to do to prepare for conflict.
04:16It's also pointed out that the debate we've been having over defence spending
04:20in the wake of the demands from the Trump administration
04:22echo some of the debates that are found in the pages of its recent report.
04:27I guess it is a little bit inside the beltway, Joe, but still a fascinating debate
04:31that's still got a way to play out between this government-funded,
04:34but independent think tank and its paymasters in government.
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