{"id":88345,"date":"2024-08-14T15:28:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T05:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=88345"},"modified":"2024-08-14T16:48:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T06:48:46","slug":"hastie-what-would-i-do-as-the-next-minister-for-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/hastie-what-would-i-do-as-the-next-minister-for-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Hastie: what would I do as the next minister for defence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

[A speech delivered to the Meet the Chiefs industry briefing, Canberra, 13 August 2024.]<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad to have another frank discussion with you about securing Australia\u2019s future. Tonight, I propose to do something different. I\u2019d like to take a different angle on Defence, and put the pressure on me: what would I do as the next minister for defence?<\/p>\n

So rather than describing the strategic challenges that we face, which are many and have been well articulated already, I\u2019m going to describe how I will approach the task of governing as minister for defence if we are successful in winning the next election.<\/p>\n

First, though, let\u2019s limber up with a Kim Beazley insight on Defence, who once said this:<\/p>\n

… the complex structure of decision-making in defence, producing as it does a clash of views among extraordinarily well-versed partisans of particular service and institutional interests, patriotic philosophers, optimists and pessimists, scientists and technological fixers, nationalists and internationalists, is more akin to ancient church councils in its product than to the town meeting approach democracy contemplates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s vintage Beazley in the way he paints a colourful, human panorama for us. You can feel the sense of mystery that shrouds the defence diarchy that is charged with defending the nation.<\/p>\n

I should add that the quote is more than 25 years old, and times have changed. But being a student of history, we need to understand the past if we are to navigate the future with a high probability of success.<\/p>\n

In any case, we can assume that Defence\u2014as an organisation\u2014is a complex living institution, and so I assume a posture of humility in approaching the challenge.<\/p>\n

Minister for defence is one the toughest jobs in the Cabinet, and the most unforgiving in the event of failure.<\/p>\n

What is failure? Well, let\u2019s first define success. In my view, there are two criteria for success: one, preventing war; two, if it comes, winning at war.<\/p>\n

Both preventing and winning wars requires one thing: strength\u2014the strength to deter and defeat your adversaries. And you\u2019re only strong if you have combat power, industrial capacity and allies.<\/p>\n

Now, we have a lot of work to do on our combat power and industrial capacity in Australia.<\/p>\n

We are doing well with our allies\u2014AUKUS is proof of that\u2014but relationships need constant work, and we cannot for a moment neglect them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve defined success. So, back to failure.<\/p>\n

Failure would be leaving Australia\u2019s defences so weak that we provoke aggression. And in the face of aggression, failure is losing at war.<\/p>\n

A minister for defence is charged with making sure that doesn\u2019t happen. That is the job. It is a no-fail mission. There are no other areas of public policy where the consequences for failure are so grave.<\/p>\n

Sir Arthur Tange, perhaps the greatest defence secretary of the last century, understood this challenge well. A whip smart, charming, prickly, driven and relentless reformer, he dragged Defence into the modern era, and a few star ranks with him. He understood Defence as fundamentally an intellectual exercise requiring leadership, analytical power and drive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an intellectual exercise because it requires a strategic imagination to anticipate threats and taking the preparatory actions to defeat them. It\u2019s also an intellectual exercise in convincing your adversaries to take you seriously.<\/p>\n

Deterrence, in the end, is deeply psychological. You want to haunt the mind of your opponent. To instil fear and anxiety in them. You are sending a price signal, that war will be costly\u2014a price signal that saps their will to fight. Defence starts in the mind, and that\u2019s why Tange culled safe thinkers from the civilian hierarchy.<\/p>\n

He cut loose those he considered too conservative, or process orientated. He was also happy to have the top brass bent out of shape, if that\u2019s what it took. He wanted Defence to be an intellectual powerhouse.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also why Tange drove the reforms that led to the modern Defence organisation that we know today. I won\u2019t go through them in detail but for the purposes of this speech, the reforms made clear in the Defence Act that the minister for defence presides over the general control and administration of the defence force.<\/p>\n

This brings us to the point of my remarks tonight.<\/p>\n

How do I see an effective minister exercising these powers?<\/p>\n

I think we must first recognise the natural constraints that bind a minister for defence. There are geopolitical constraints. There are domestic constraints\u2014electoral, parliamentary and party political. There are constraints within cabinet. There are budgetary constraints.<\/p>\n

There are the normal constraints of elected office in the Westminster system\u2014local politics, media and campaigns.<\/p>\n

Geography is a factor, too. This I know well travelling from Western Australia. Then there are family considerations, and personal constraints like intellect, character and experience. Very quickly, we can see that defence ministerial leadership has a unique set of constraints. And those constraints narrow the ministerial influence upon defence policy and decision-making. You can\u2019t be everywhere, and across every brief. You need a team around you. I think this is a feature of our democratic tradition, not necessarily a bug as some might think. (Although it\u2019s provided plenty of material for Yes, Minister<\/em> and the other documentary, Utopia<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Second, given these constraints, ministerial leadership is distinctly different to all other types of leadership.<\/p>\n

If Kim Beazley likened Defence decision-making to ancient church councils, I\u2019m going to take the liberty of borrowing some Dutch Protestant theology. More than 120 years ago, the prime minister of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper, formulated the concept of \u2018sphere sovereignty\u2019. In short, it teaches that every sphere of life\u2014family, business, education and government, to name a few spheres\u2014has its own internal order, responsibilities and competence.<\/p>\n

To adapt it to the secular topic at hand, that of defence, it means that every sphere of capability within and adjacent to Defence is sovereign in its responsibility and competence. The infantry platoon at close combat. The warship at protecting our seas. The squadron of fighter aircraft in patrolling the skies. The missile battery in air defence. The logisticians who resupply our war fighters. The public servants who do policy and administration. The manufacturer at producing cutting edge defence technology.<\/p>\n

Each sphere of capability is sovereign. And it is also accountable to the whole\u2014in this case, to the Parliament through the minister for defence.<\/p>\n

One thing I do want to make clear: it is not the role of the minister to impose themselves directly upon the many spheres of capability and competence within Defence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not their job to out-general the generals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not their job to out-secretary the secretary.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not their job to out-soldier the soldiers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not their job to out-administer the administrators.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not their job to out-think the think-tankers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not their job to out-manufacture the manufacturers.<\/p>\n

The minister\u2019s job is to bring all these spheres\u2014which sit in creative tension with one another\u2014into an organisation that coheres around the Defence mission.<\/p>\n

And the primary way that we draw things together in my vocation is through our words, through our tough questions and through our coordinating networks.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the minister\u2019s sphere\u2014in the public square\u2014making the decisions: making the arguments, building public support, explaining decisions, being accountable to the Parliament.<\/p>\n

A defence minister does this directly, and through their personal staff\u2014who matter a great deal in the way they connect the minister to Defence, and therefore must be of the highest calibre.<\/p>\n

Malcom Fraser and Arthur Tange had many personal battles, perhaps in part because Fraser\u2014as minister for defence\u2014liked to canyon deep into the defence establishment. Fraser made a habit of working inside defence and calling up lower officials in the organisation. Tange didn\u2019t like interference in his sphere. He was sovereign as secretary. Things between them, at one point, got so bad that they went without speaking for two weeks, until Fraser offered to settle it over a drink with the secretary.<\/p>\n

Now, some of my critics might suggest that my time in the Australian Defence Force will be a problem if we form government\u2014that I just won\u2019t be able to help myself, that I will revert to Captain Hastie.<\/p>\n

To that critique, I would say, I know what it is to soldier in tough conditions, to feel fear and anxiety, to make mistakes, to experience friction at the pointy end of operations.<\/p>\n

I understand the customs and traditions of the ADF\u2014as well as the quirks and some of the lexicon. That\u2019s all very important as a potential minister for defence.<\/p>\n

But I haven\u2019t been to command and staff college, nor undertaken other higher defence courses or training. And perhaps that will be to the advantage of our national defence.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t consider myself a master of operational art or compelled to interfere directly with operations; others have those skills.<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s the minister\u2019s prerogative to ask tough questions, to demand options, to make decisions, but we have ADF experts in their spheres of sovereignty, and they must be respected.<\/p>\n

Instead, I\u2019ve had a strategic education of my own, through the Parliament over the last nine years\u2014longer than I was ever a commissioned officer. I\u2019ve chaired the Intelligence and Security Committee. I was understudy to Peter Dutton as his assistant minister in the last government.<\/p>\n

I built relationships across the national security community and industry and worked hard to understand parliamentary and government processes.<\/p>\n

In short, I\u2019ve chosen to master my vocation of politics\u2014to help shape the polis itself, the way we organise our national life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve not forgotten what the late Rear Admiral James Goldrick said to me: you must keep reading and writing. You must build an interior life. I have pursued that interior life since I heard those words.<\/p>\n

Which is why I would say back to my critics: I\u2019ll respect your sphere of competence; I trust that you\u2019ll respect mine.<\/p>\n

So, in closing, it is my view that a competent minister for defence will have a mastery of their parliamentary vocation; they\u2019ll be excellent communicators; they\u2019ll be focused on the no-fail mission of Defence; they\u2019ll respect the many spheres of competence in the organisation; they\u2019ll ask the tough questions; and they\u2019ll make the tough calls.<\/p>\n

We began with churches, but let me end with ramparts.<\/p>\n

For the Defence establishment looks like one of the imposing castles that I visited in Jordan during my final deployment 10 years ago: Kerak Castle, built in 1142 AD, and Ajloun Castle, built in 1184 AD. Both are steeped in military and political history. Both are imposing and full of mystery.<\/p>\n

You can only fully understand the castle once you are inside. The corridors. The secret passages. The many chambers. The booby traps.<\/p>\n

So, too, with Defence. You\u2019ve got to be inside the fortress, as there is no substitute for experience, and so the task now is to win this election and form government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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