Articles by: "Patrick Walters"
Tony Abbott and Australia’s defence

Tony Abbott today set the course for future government policy on naval shipbuilding in Australia. In his speech to ASPI’s Future Force Structure Options for Army Conference, the Prime Minister committed the government to a …

The riddle of the landing

‘Tell the colonel the damn fools have landed us a mile too far north,’ yelled Royal Navy commander, Charles Dix, at dawn on 25 April 1915, as the first Australian troops jumped ashore at Anzac …

It’s time to review the AWD

It’s Australia’s biggest current defence project and a multi-billion dollar headache for Defence Minister David Johnston. The Abbott Government is expected to commission soon a broad scale external review of the $8 billion air warfare …

The end of the road

Last week General Motors Holden, spurred by some cavalier observations by federal government ministers, heralded the death-knell for the Australian automotive manufacturing industry. It’s been a long time coming but it’s a safe bet that …

A hard road ahead for Defence

Defence faces years of budget discipline as broader financial pressures bear down on the Abbott government. That’s the implicit message from David Johnston in his most significant speech since he took office as defence minister …

A new bilateral rupture?

For nearly ten years as Indonesia’s leader, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has presided over the most stable and productive era in the tumultuous diplomatic relationship between Jakarta and Canberra. Australia’s extraordinary $1 billion act of generosity …