Anthony Albanese rejects blanket call to boost defence spending to 3.5 per cent

Anthony Albanese has rejected a blanket commitment to lifting Australia’s defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, ruling out the renewed demand from the Trump administration.

With the Prime Minister poised for his first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump in a matter of weeks, Mr Albanese maintained that defence spending would be calculated depending on Australia’s needs and capabilities.

“There’s been a range of things going forward. What you should do in defence is decide what you need, your capability and then provide for it,” he told reporters during a visit to drought-affected farming communities in Fischer, South Australia.

“That’s what my government is doing. Investing in our capability and investing in our relationships.”

As it stands, Labor’s additional $10bn in defence investment will lift spending to 2.3 per cent of GDP by 2033-34.

China has criticised the United States for inciting tensions at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. This comes after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned allies at the summit that any attempt by China to conquer Taiwan would result in devastating consequences. A Chinese spokesman responded to this, saying Beijing would continue to seek dialogue – however, Mr Hegseth’s comments were inciting division and would destabilise the region.

Mr Albanese said committing to a specific figure “made no sense”, taking a shot at the Coalition’s election commitment to boost funding by $21bn, which would have increased spending to 3 per cent by 2030.

“What we don’t do is do what the opposition did during the election campaign, where they announced an amount of money,” he said.

“They couldn’t say where the money was coming from, and they couldn’t say what it was for. That makes no sense. What we need is things that defend us in real terms, and that’s what we’ll provide.”

Washington’s call for Australia to step up military spending came from a bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his US defence counterpart Pete Hegseth.

The two senior officials met over the weekend on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend.

In a read out, the US Embassy said the two senior officials “discussed aligning investment to the security environment in the Indo-Pacific, accelerating US force posture initiatives in Australia, advancing defence industrial base co-operation, and creating supply chain resilience”.

“On defence spending, Secretary Hegseth conveyed that Australia should increase its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of its GDP as soon as possible,” the embassy said.

Mr Hegseth used his address at the Shangri La Dialogue to warn of an “imminent” threat from China, saying Beijing could invade Taiwan as early as 2027.

Such a move would deal a major blow to global supply of semiconductors and likely massively disrupt vital trade routes.

“Let me be clear, any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world,” Mr Hegseth told the conference.

“There’s no reason to sugar-coat it. The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent.

“We hope not but certainly could be.”

‘Money back’: Lambie’s rogue reply to US demand

Earlier on Monday, independent senator Jacqui Lambie said Australia should be looking to cut “waste” in the Australian Defence Force before looking to pump more cash into it.

Reacting to the Trump administration calling on Canberra to boost the defence budget amid increased Chinese aggression the Indo-Pacific.

A veteran and fierce advocate for the ADF, Senator Lambie quipped that the Albanese government should “just ask Donald Trump to give us their money back for our submarines mate”.

“It’d be nice to lift our defence spending – there is no doubt about that,” she told Sky News.

“Things are pretty tough out there at the moment, but I think it’s more the waste.

“We waste so much money in defence procurement, and that’s where we should be looking.”

Senator Lambie pointed to the drawn-out build timelines for the AUKUS submarines.

Under the trilateral defence pact, Australia is set to build five of the nuclear-powered boats in South Australia.

The first is expected to be finished by the early 2040s.

“You’ve only got to see those submarines,” Senator Lambie said.

“Four billion dollars so far – we haven’t got one scrap of bloody steel sitting in a harbour yet ready to go.

“I mean, that is just disgusting waste at its best.”

Asked what Australia could do in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Senator Lambie replied: “I don’t know, have you seen the size of the Chinese army?

“That’s the first thing, and the second thing is this – have you seen the condition that ours is in?”

“We have a personnel crisis in our military, and something needs to be done.

“The only way young people are going to go and join is when people in that uniform go out there and brag how great that job (is).”

She said the recruitment crisis was “the biggest problem you have with our national security right now”.

“People do not want to join defence, and people do not want to stay in,” Senator Lambie said.

She also said Australian troops were “not in the condition to being in a war zone”.

Labor has pushed back against Mr Hegseth’s call to lift the defence budget, with Anthony Albanese saying his government was already spending record amounts on the military.

Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite on Monday echoed the Prime Minister.

“We are increasing our defence spending over the course of the next three years,” Mr Thistlethwaite told Sky News.

“Defence spending increases by about 10½ billion dollars and about $50bn over the course of the next decade.”

Mr Thistlethwaite added that the Albanese government was increasing defence spending to “2½ per cent of GDP”, including through AUKUS.

The Trump administration’s demand came just days after a leading defence think tank said Australia must bolster its immediate readiness to go to war or risk having a “paper ADF”.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute warned that while Labor was spending on longer-term projects it was not pumping nearly enough cash into keeping Australia combat-ready in the near term.