Soon after she became foreign minister in May last year, Penny Wong went on a self-described listening tour of the Pacific. ‘I’m very happy to be here again, to listen … to the new government …
Australian Defence white papers have long identified the strategic import of ‘a secure South Pacific and Timor-Leste’. As renowned strategic thinker T.B. Millar once reflected, Papua New Guinea is an ‘an exposed and vulnerable front …
In the joint statement following Prime Minister Abbott and Prime Minister Abe’s meeting, titled ‘Special Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century’, one of the action items listed was tasking officials to develop a ‘coordinated strategy …
Last Friday, the defence minister announced no fewer than three shipbuilding initiatives. First, to the dismay of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (PDF) and the indignation of the opposition, the government announced that it would …
Calls to fast-track the construction of new patrol boats to replace Navy’s hard-working but troubled Armidales, partly to help forestall the valley of death facing the nation’s naval shipyards, occur amid continuing debate over the …