‘Sitting ducks’: Hastie says overreliance on US has weakened Australia

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie says Australia has allowed an overreliance on the United States military to weaken the country.

The opposition spokesman for defence and sovereign capability argued in a speech at the Robert Menzies Centre on Thursday that the nation must rebuild its industrial and defence capabilities to rebalance the ANZUS Treaty and be a better partner to Australia’s historic ally.

“To put it bluntly, if ANZUS is going to continue for another 75 years, we need to invest in our industrial base and our defence force,” Hastie said.

The Afghanistan veteran and former SAS soldier said since the ANZUS treaty was signed in 1951 and Australia’s defence became more reliant on US power, “we forgot the hard lessons of war, and outsourced our security to the United States.”

“It has cost us sovereign capabilities like a robust defence industry, and our strategic freedom of action in ways that we are now discovering.”

Hastie said for the past 30 years Australia had neglected its commitment in the treaty to develop its capability for self-defence and to protect partners.

He said ANZUS was built on the understanding that both parties would build their military capability, and Australia must lift itself back to the standard of self-reliance set up by Robert Menzies in the post-war era.

Hastie added that the Australian navy had not kept pace with drone and missile technology and was not prepared to deploy vessels to a conflict, such as the US-Israeli war on Iran.

“Even if we send young Australians into harm’s way, we’d be sitting ducks without the intimate support of the US navy.”

Hastie said the US had made clear in its National Defence Strategy it would seek only to guarantee its own strategic interests.

“President Trump confirms this reality almost every day with his robust messaging about America’s traditional allies.”

Hastie said Trump’s war in Iran had also exposed Australia’s “industrial atrophy”, as the global oil shock squeezed markets and sent petrol and diesel prices soaring. He called for Australia to drill for and refine its own oil to ensure supply into the future.