The strategic importance of northern Australia was highlighted in the defence strategic review, with $3.8 billion committed to upgrade military installations across the north over the next four years. Defence Minister Richard Marles, who travelled …
The Strategist on: "North of 26° south"
The defence strategic review identified Australia’s north as key terrain for deterring adversaries and working with regional partners. Yet while the review seeks new directions, its references to northern Australia revisit historical concerns about the …
Southeast Asia’s energy transition is coming to life as the development of green technologies accelerates across the region. Securing critical minerals will be crucial to this process, and Australia should work with Southeast Asia to …
Critical mineral projects will be favoured for federal government loans under its new critical minerals strategy, but there are to be no tailored tax breaks. Nor are there any plans to make downstream processing a condition of …
Sustainable development of northern Australia has become a national priority over the past decade. The region’s geostrategic importance has grown, and recently there have been calls to strengthen Australia’s sovereign capability in the north. Importantly, …
In 2022, demographers demonstrated that parts of the north of Australia are among the most remote and sparsely populated areas in the world. These characteristics are fundamental barriers to economic transformation and growth in the …
Northern Australia has enormous potential to expand its role in providing for one of the Indo-Pacific’s most crucial needs—protein-rich foods. Thanks to its high-quality protein industries such as beef cattle and its potential to expand …
While the AUKUS agreement and the defence strategic review have focused strong interest on the massive task of building, crewing and operating Australia’s future nuclear-powered submarines, the government has also agreed in principle to sizeable …
The story of Darwin really begins with the necessity to establish a support route for the Overland Telegraph to the southern states of Australia. In November 1871, the 1,100-mile submarine cable between Darwin and Banjoewangie in Java …
In January, the World Economic Forum released its Global Risks Report 2023. For almost two decades this report has been the pre-eminent source of global risk data—the insights it provides are only becoming more valuable …
Chinese-owned Tianqi Lithium last month argued that it was a ‘like-minded’ foreign investor in Australia. This invited close consideration of the somewhat contradictory aims Australia is currently pursuing in the critical minerals sector. It should …
Nations must regularly ask themselves how they are to meet the challenges of their strategic context. The defence strategic review commissioned by the Australian government set out to assess Australia’s force posture, structure and capability. …