Marles: national defence strategy transforms ADF to ‘survive in much less certain world’
More than a year ago, the defence strategic review warned that the ADF was structured for “a bygone era” and the security environment was “radically different”.
Richard Marles says the national defence strategy will transform the ADF and equip it “to survive in a much less certain world”.
Marles says Australia’s national security “actually lies in the heart of our region”, because “the defence of Australia does not mean much without the collective security of the region in which we live”.
He says the national defence strategy reaffirms the complexity of our strategic circumstances:
The optimistic assumptions that guided defence planning after the end of the cold war are long gone. Our environment is characterised by the uncertainty and tensions of entrenched and increasing strategic competition between the United States and China, large-scale war has returned to the European continent and conflict is once again gripping the Middle East. This competition is accompanied by an unprecedented conventional and non-conventional military build-up in our region, taking place without strategic reassurance or transparency …
Australia no longer has the luxury of a 10-year window of strategic warning time for conflict.
Richard Marles unveils national defence strategy, including extra $50bn spending over 10 years
Daniel Hurst
Defence minister Richard Marles has just begun speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, where he is announcing the national defence strategy.
Australia will pour an extra $50bn into defence spending over the next 10 years as part of the overhaul, which the federal government says will ensure the military can project power further from its shores.
Marles has also flagged plans to recruit non-citizens to serve in the Australian defence force to address workforce shortages.
Releasing two major defence planning documents, Marles said the Albanese government would be spending $50.3bn extra on defence over the next 10 years, when compared against the trajectory inherited from the Coalition.
That includes an extra $5.7bn over the first four-year budget cycle, in a sign that most of the funding is for the medium to long term. The Coalition has repeatedly argued the key test for Marles is how much funding he can secure in the looming budget.
This immediate funding includes $1bn over the next four years for long-range strike, targeting and autonomous systems. The Aukus nuclear-powered submarines are another key spending area for defence.
Graeme Samuel says he still believes regional forest agreements should be axed
Still at the hearing, Graeme Samuel was critical of “naysayers” in Western Australia, including the state’s mining industry, that had been running a campaign of “negative publicity” against improved environmental protections.
He said the mining community and Western Australia “need to understand” that the reforms his review proposed were designed to protect and recover Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems while also simplifying the assessment process businesses had to follow.
Samuel also gave evidence that he remained of the view that Australia’s existing nature laws were an “abysmal failure” and said he still believed regional forest agreements (RFA) - which provide an effective exemption for the native logging industry from federal environmental laws – should be axed.
It seems to me that if we don’t deal with this, and deal with it long before 2030, we are neglecting a fundamental element of the habitat for species, whether they be threatened or whether they’re going to go on to the threatened species list
The government has not proposed doing this but has said it would require RFAs to be consistent with national standards, when they are introduced.
Graeme Samuel says new national environmental standards ‘essential’
The centrepiece of Samuel’s recommended reforms, new national environmental standards, as well as a broader suite of laws, have been deferred to an unspecified date, prompting accusations the government had broken a promise to bring a single package of legislation to parliament. Tanya Plibersek could not guarantee the wider reforms would be introduced in this term of government.
Samuel backed the splitting up of the bills and said he believed the proposed EPA would improve enforcement of the law. He felt other aspects of the reform were being considered as part of an “orderly” and “really complex” process.
He was pressed by Liberal senator Jonno Duniam on whether the government’s new approach was consistent with the recommendations of his own review.
The review recommended three tranches of reform, with the final tranche to be a full rewrite of Australia’s national laws.
But the establishment in law of new national environmental standards was recommended as an immediate priority in the first tranche of reforms.
Samuel told the hearing he understood for “legal reasons” standards had been pushed back to a later stage.
We put some draft NES (national environmental standards) into the report, but they clearly needed further work and they’re being developed.
Asked by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young whether he still felt the standards were central to new nature laws, Samuel said:
Ex ACCC chief Graeme Samuel to conservation groups: ‘Take a chill pill’
Lisa Cox
Graeme Samuel, the former ACCC chairman who led a review of Australia’s failing national environmental laws, has told a Senate inquiry that conservation groups concerned about the pace of the Albanese government’s changes to environment laws should “take a chill pill”.
While appearing at a hearing of the Senate’s inquiry into the extinction crisis, he said:
I would say, just sit and wait, take a chill pill.
I think you will find that what we’re going to get will satisfy all their aspirations as set out in the nature positive plan that the minister [Tanya Plibersek] announced some time ago.
On Tuesday, the environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek confirmed the government would split up its proposed legislation and would introduce bills for a new environment protection agency and an environment information agency in coming weeks.
Victorian First Peoples’ Assembly says treaty negotiations to discuss financial redress
Adeshola Ore
Victoria’s First People’s Assembly has flagged financial redress will be on the table when the body begins negotiating a statewide treaty with the state government in the coming months.
The assembly – the democratically elected Indigenous body – is appearing at Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling commission. The assembly will begin negotiating a statewide treaty with the Allan government this year.
Ngarra Murray, co-chair of the assembly, says financial redress will be discussed during treaty negotiations:
No amount of money, and I don’t want to tally it up either, can compensate for the pain and suffering that our people have felt but that will be a discussion for negotiations.
Ngarra Murray of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Queensland treaty minister accuses LNP of ‘turning backs’ on First Nations people
Queensland’s treaty minister, Leeanne Enoch, has accused the Liberal National party of “turning their backs” on First Nations people after the party backflipped on its support for the path to treaty.
Enoch’s fiery response in state parliament today came after LNP MP John-Paul Langbroek asked whether tax exemptions would be included in the government’s path to treaty process.
Enoch slammed the LNP, claiming any question the party asked about treaty was “about undermining treaty”.
The member and all those opposite voted in favour ... and then backflipped on treaty and turned their back on the First Nations peoples of this state.
Enoch said bodies of work were underway, including the establishment of a treaty institute and a truth-telling and healing inquiry.
Those two bodies of work that are being finalised currently will help to guide what treaty will look like in this state.
Queensland’s treaty minister Leeanne Enoch. Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP
Part of Westfield Bondi Junction centre to be allocated for tributes
The community reflection day will occur from 11am to 5pm, management confirmed.
He said “a part of the centre” will be cordoned off for people to leave tributes, wreaths and flowers. This will remain “for a considerable period of time” so people can pay their respects.
In terms of a longer term memorial, the spokesperson said this would be considered in conjunction with victims’ families in time.
Westfield management honour staff member Faraz Tahir
The Westfield spokesperson has acknowledged Faraz Tahir, the security staff member killed on Saturday.
He said Tahir’s family is on their way from overseas.
Our team member came to this country as a refugee from Pakistan seeking a safer life and it’s with great tragedy and sadness that in our country … he hasn’t been able to experience that.
We’re working with [his] family, we’re working with all the victims’ families, in how we support, both financially and non-financially, in how they grieve and move forward from the tragedy that occurred here on Saturday.
