Is Australia spending too much on military?

Military Aircraft
Source: Time, 2015

The cost of defending Australia and supporting other countries in war has been a hot topic among the federal government for years. Australia has an alliance with countries such as The United States of America and New Zealand and are obliged to support them in war. But is it really necessary for taxpayers of Australia to see their well earned money go towards a war that doesn't really affect us? Smith (2013) argues that Australians pay a high price for our readiness to follow great powers. The lives of defence personnel are endangered, overseas deployments are costly, and active participation in the arms race damages our ability to contribute to multilateral peace processes. However, if Australia pulled out of this alliance, this country's security would be in jeopardy and could see invasions from neighbouring countries. 

Many defence ministers when trying to explain the purpose of Australia’s armed forces, often fall back on the phrase “the defence of Australia”. A speech by former Defence Minister Stephen Smith stated that the 2009 Defence White Paper 'underlined that Australia’s most basic strategic interest remained the defence of Australia against direct armed attack' (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015).

This realistically simple idea, that the reason we have a defence force is to defend ourselves against direct attack, has been vital to defence policy for at least the past 30 years, and the public seems to accept it. But only a few people in government or defence think that Australia faces any credible risk of major military attack, and fewer still believe we could defend ourselves if we did (Smith, 2015). 

The Commonwealth of Australia (2015) explains that this financial year, the defence budget has jumped from 2.5 billion dollars to 31.5 billion dollars. Australia doesn't willingly spend those numbers just to lend a hand in Africa or even to try to re build Afghanistan. Australia only spends that kind of money to protect the country. Year after year, the biggest share of the defence budget has gone on capabilities, such as fighter jets, major warships, submarines and heavily equipped land forces, that are irrelevant to the lighter tasks we have been sending the defence force off to do (Bergmann, 2010). If these capabilities make sense, it would only be in fighting a major war. Yet hardly anyone believes this is a realistic prospect, let alone a winnable one. 

Defence Force
Source: Addario, L 2015

References:

Addario, L 2015, Defence Force, digital image, viewed 30 August 2015, ‪www.lynseyaddario.com

Bergmann, K 2010, 'Defence keeps growing', Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter, vol. 36, issue 5, pp. 13 17.

Commonwealth of Australia 2015, Minister for Defence – Budget 2015: Defence Budget Overview, viewed 30 July 2015, http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2015/05/12/minister-for-defence-budget-2015-defence-budget-overview/

Commonwealth of Australia 2015, Minister for Defence – To the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Australia’s Changing Strategic Circumstances, viewed 30 July 2015, http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2012/08/01/minister-for-defence-to-the-australian-strategic-policy-institute-aspi-australias-changing-strategic-circumstances/

Smith, T 2013, 'Australia's ten wasted years of war', Eureka Street, vol. 23, issue 5, pp. 25-26. 

Time 2015, military planes, digital image, viewed 30 July 2015, http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/top10_military_planes_alt/fa18_hornet.jpg