navy

It is rare that a critical article on Australia's military spending appears in one of the corporate newspapers but on October 25, the Melbourne Age published such an article by senior correspondent Daniel Flitton entitled β€œDoes Australia's military need such tentacles of defence?”. Flitton argued that while Australian governments have β€œtalked the good talk of regional co-operation and engagement for decades” their β€œstaggering shopping list of new military hardware was signalling a very different message to the region.