Liberal frontbencher says the country’s ‘sovereign capabilities’ have been eroded. Follow today’s news live
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The Liberal frontbencher, Andrew Hastie, says doubling down on the US relationship has eroded Australia’s sovereign capability, including its defence industry, as he warns the country must “get serious” about national security to rebalance the alliance.
In a speech to the Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne last night, the shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability said the reliance on the US meant “strategic trade-offs” that had hastened the deindustrialisation of Australia and “weakened our hard power”.
To put it bluntly, if ANZUS is going to continue for another 75 years, we need to invest in our industrial base and our defence force.
