Link to article: https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2024/05/15/australia-unveils-record-37-billion-defense-budget
In mid October of last year, the Australian government announced their 2025 Defense budget and it contains some rather interesting figures. The new budget is planned to be around 55.7 Billion AUD, which translates to around 36.8 Billion USD. Its a truly massive amount and one that makes up around 2.2% of its entire GDP. The whole increase is around 6% of what the previous budget was, making this the highest increase in recent history for Australia. The Australian government also announced plans to increase its spending to around 100 Billion AUD by 2032, which would account for 2.3% of their projected 2032 GDP. The lion’s share of the budget, 11.8 Billion, goes towards the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and its acquisition of 5 nuclear powered attack submarines. in 2021, the AUKUS (Australia United Kingdom, United States) agreement laid the groundwork for the sale of 5 Nuclear submarines to the Australian navy, 4 Virginia class, and one Astute Class submarine from the US and UK respectively. The RAN is also laying the groundwork for multiple new surface vessels, 6 Hunter Class Frigates and 6 Arafura class Offshore-patrol vessels. The Australian Army is allotted 10.7 Billion AUD, the most notable acquisitions for the Australian land forces are the numerous armored vehicles that they are purchasing from a variety of nations, for example, the Redback Armored Personnel Carrier from South africa, and many different vehicles from the United States, such as the Boxer Armored Utility Vehicle, the M1A2 Abrams main battle tank, and multiple Blackhawk and Apache helicopters. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is assigned 9.5 Billion for the purchase of 75 F-35A 5th gen multirole fighters, which will make Australia the 9th Nation to possess this capability.
Australia’s new defense budget should come as no surprise to the nations in the region, however it does answer one very important question that had been hanging over Australia for a very long time, and that question was “which way will Australia go?”. While yes Australia has been historically aligned with the West and more specifically Great Britian, in recent years Australia has become even more involved with China. Since 2009 China has been the largest trade partner of the island nation, primarily for its vast Iron and coal deposits. In 2024 Australia exported over 120 Billion dollars worth of goods to China further drawing the two nations close together. However, with the new defense budget, analysts around the globe can pretty safely assume that Australia will be on the side of the US in the “2nd Cold War”. This is for a variety of reasons such as the Nuclear Submarines and the F-35s but also the direct word of the Australian Minister of Defence himself, calling China “The biggest threat to Oceania Security since Japan in the 1930s”. and that “China has employed coercive tactics in pursuit of its strategic objectives, including forceful handling of territorial disputes and unsafe intercepts of vessels and aircraft operating in international waters and airspace,”. All of these quotes point to an increasingly hostile rhetoric towards China and the CCP.
The way this relates to what we are learning in class is through the idea of International Security and Global stability. Australia is building up its military in order to deter China and to ensure the stability of Oceania in general. Australia is also using its international ties in order to levy support to build up its military in the form of the AUKUS agreement and the purchase of the F-35s and various other pieces of military hardware.