Australia’s Strategic Deficit: Steve Baxter’s Warning

Former soldier and entrepreneur Steve Baxter has issued a blunt warning: Australia is not prepared for major conflict. His concern is not only the size of the defence budget, but how it is being spent.

At 2% of GDP, Australia’s defence spend looks adequate on paper – yet operating the planned AUKUS nuclear submarines alone could absorb 0.7%. That leaves little room for the real backbone of modern warfare: space, cyber, intelligence, logistics, and resilience.

The deeper problem, Baxter argues, is cultural. Australia has not yet had the serious national conversation about the trade-offs required to secure sovereignty. Big ticket programs may look impressive, but without public will, enabling domains, and sovereign industrial depth, they risk becoming hollow symbols.

With tensions rising across the Indo-Pacific, his warning is timely. Defence capability takes years – sometimes decades – to build. The real danger lies in the “in-between time”, when threats materialise before the systems designed to deter them are ready.

Baxter’s call is urgent: lift investment, prioritise the enablers, and confront the reality that preparedness is not optional – it is existential.

Full article via news.com.au in the comments.

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