China no ‘imminent’ threat
Concerns that China could pose an “imminent threat” to Australia have been rubbished by Richard Marles, as he claims his navy overhaul will be enough to protect the country.
It comes as military experts warn that the reduction of the navy fleet until the early 2030s could leave the nation exposed as China expands its military power in the Indo-Pacific.
On Tuesday, the defence minister said Australia would acquire 11 general-purpose frigates and six drone ships as part of a major navy revamp.
However, due to several older ships going out of service, the fleet will shrink until the early 2030s.
When asked if this would leave Australia in a vulnerable position, Mr Marles said it was the biggest update made to maritime security since the Second World War.
“The threat is not about some not imminent invasion. It is about being able to maintain our way of life,” Mr Marles told Nine’s Today Show.
“It’s about being able to put forward a credible projection in a world where you know is uncertain – and that’s why we are looking at more than doubling the size of our warships.”
More than $11bn will be spent on the navy revamp over the next decade – raising defence spending to about 2.4 per cent of Australia’s economy.
The planned frigates fleet will be built in Adelaide and will be slashed from nine to six vessels – but will be fully delivered by 2043.
Mr Marles said that China’s ambitious military build-up in the Indo-Pacific did pose a strategic threat but said his focus was on accelerating the acquisition of the new ship fleet.
“Obviously, we have our alliance arrangements with the United States and our relationships with countries around the world, but what we need to be doing is making sure that we are building a much more capable navy,” he said.
“Frankly, as we are seeing China engage in the single biggest conventional military build-up since the end of the Second World War, it raises the prospect of coercion for a country like Australia.
“We need to be making sure that we have an ability to deal with that coercion. And we have a much more capable navy, and that’s what we’re building.”
Following the announcement of the fleet, Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie claimed that Australia wouldn’t see a new warship in its waters until 2031 and warned that the planned timeline was not quick enough to close a capability gap.
“I think the implementation looks too slow and that jars with the whole urgency that is caused by our dangerous region and the fact the fleet is ageing and failing,” Mr Hastie told Sky News on Tuesday.
Denouncing Mr Hastie’s comments as “astounding”, Mr Marles said the first frigate was expected to be procured by the end of the decade.
“There is no showroom where you can go off and buy a warship and suddenly have it – what we are talking about is the fastest procurement that we have seen in our navy since the Second World War,” he told ABC’s Radio National.
“We inherited the oldest surface fleet since the end of the Second World War, we inherited a 10-year capability gap with submarines … the announcement yesterday stands completely apart from any of the announcements made by the former government.”