The 2022–23 defence budget is a conflicted program. In key ways it acknowledges and responds to a changing world, but in others it is a relic of an earlier time. Let’s start with the funding …
It’s a brutal time to be a Commonwealth public servant working on the budget. Portfolio additional estimates statements—the mid-year budget update for portfolio agencies—were tabled on Friday, yet with the 2022–23 budget brought forward to …
Budget deficits used to be seen as proof of profligacy, but a new permissiveness has swept the world, partly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but also reflecting new economic thinking about the sustainability of …
In late April, President Joe Biden reiterated his pledge to bring an end to American complacency on the world stage. ‘We are in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century,’ he …
Once again, the Australian government has delivered exactly the funding it promised in the 2016 defence white paper and 2020 defence strategic update (DSU). If the government was willing to recommit to the white paper’s …