Opinion Piece - Labor Should Heed Words on Defence Spending, Not Ignore and Insult

Major General Greg Melick AO RFD ED, now retired, is a great Australian who has served this country for more than 50 years.

From 1966 until 2018, Major General Melick served in full-time and part-time capacities in the Australian Defence Force Reserves. He rose through the ranks to Major General and became Australia’s most senior Reserve officer in 2007.

He was later appointed to the Australian War Memorial Council in 2015 and recently finished his tenure as President of the Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) after 6 and a half years.

Despite this long and proud history of serving Australia, former Prime Minister Paul Keating decided it was right to make a rare public interjection to insult the retired Major General, calling him ‘a dope’.

He did so because Major General Melick used his Remembrance Day address to call for more defence spending, in order to deter conflict and to protect more Australians from being added to the Roll of Honour.

While Mr Keating’s name-calling is disgusting enough, I most take umbrage with the former PM laying the worst possible intentions on Major General Melick stating he ‘wants to drag us into a military exchange with the Chinese’.

As a proud member of the Liberal Party and someone who has also called for defence spending to rise to at least 3% of GDP, let me be clear this isn’t about getting us into a war, it’s about preventing it.

Enhancing our military capability through AUKUS and sovereign mass production of missiles, drones, cyber, undersea systems and real sustainment of existing kit is first and foremost designed to deter aggression.

This isn’t a new idea.

The concept ‘if you want peace, prepare for war’ goes all the way back to Rome in the 4th century. This has carried through time, with US President Ronald Reagan famously adopting a doctrine of ‘Peace Through Strength’ in the 1980s.

Mr Keating’s interjections on foreign and defence policy demonstrate a clear failure to recognise the current strategic environment is at its most dangerous since the Second World War - a fact the Albanese Government’s own defence officials have confirmed, while highlighting that conflict breaking out in our region is becoming less remote.

On the same day as Mr Keating blasted Major General Melick for fearmongering, the Director General of our domestic intelligence agency ASIO warned China is “conducting multiple attempts to scan and penetrate critical infrastructure in Australia and other Five Eyes countries”.

According to Mr Burgess they are targeting water, transport, telecommunications and energy networks, pre-positioning for a potential sabotage of critical infrastructure.

These grey-zone activities appear to be increasing at the same time as the Chinese Communist Party undergoes the largest military build-up of any nation since the Second World War without providing any strategic assurances.

Australia needs to respond to these escalating circumstances, and I will not criticise Major General Melick for using an opportunity where the nation is focused on our defence forces to make that point.

In June the Prime Minister said Labor ‘will always provide for capability that’s needed’.

That stands in stark contrast to revelations that under Labor dozens of workers maintaining and upgrading the RAAF’s F-35 fighter jets have been redeployed as part of an austerity drive within Defence.

This is just one example of a broader problem of severe underfunding in Defence with each of the ADF’s service chiefs reportedly warning that sustainment budgets are being slashed, leaving critical platforms and the nation exposed.

What is the purpose of having multi-million-dollar equipment if it’s not properly maintained and ready for use at a moment’s notice? Does Labor really think in case of conflict the enemy would wait for us to catch up?

We need to be a ready force, one to deter and two to respond if required.

Having attended the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney last week, I heard again that the Albanese Labor Government’s problems go far beyond sustainment.

The current view from defence industry is that if you aren’t involved with submarines, you have just about Buckley’s chance of getting anywhere. We must deliver AUKUS, but not at the expense of the rest of our capability needs.

The Prime Minister’s number one responsibility is to keep Australians safe. He once said his word is his bond. It’s time he keeps his word, ends the cuts and properly funds our ADF.

Unfortunately, it appears Major General Melick’s plea has fallen on deaf ears with the Hon Matt Keogh, Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs, simply saying that it was ‘probably not something that we should be focusing on a day like Remembrance Day’.

This is quite a surprising take, given that many in the Labor Government, including the Prime Minister, seemed to have been more focused on the anniversary of the Whitlam dismissal than marking Remembrance Day.

Instead of maintaining the rage, the Government should be focused on maintaining and enhancing our defence capabilities.

ENDS.

*Published in The Canberra Times, 17 November 2025

The Hon Melissa Price MP

Shadow Minister for Defence Industry

Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel

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Opinion Piece - MISSILE PROGRAM OFF TARGET

Last week during Senate Estimates, Defence officials confirmed Australia faces the most dangerous strategic environment since World War II, with the military power of the Chinese Communist Party expanding at record speed.

In this environment, it has never been more important for Australia to build real defence capability.

This requires strengthening our defence arsenal, which will enhance collective deterrence, but also requires a strong sovereign defence industry that can withstand troubling times.

This week, the Albanese Government announced what it called a joint statement of intent with the United States on guided weapons.

It sounds impressive but let’s be clear, this is an agreement to make an agreement.

After three years in government, Labor through the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise has not delivered a single missile made on Australian soil.

Defence officials have even confirmed that as part of their efforts to ensure staff “can bring their authentic self to work”, the GWEO Enterprise has produced more cookbooks for Harmony Day than missiles.

That might sound like a joke but it highlights a very serious problem with this government’s priorities.

The Coalition supports close co-operation with the US.

It is the backbone of our national security and just as Australia has famously done during wartime, we must pull our own weight.

True partnership means Australia contributing capability, technology and production capacity. That’s why we welcomed the announcement that the Government has an intent to strengthen ties with the US, including through the export of guided weapons.  

But with no missiles of our own, it is unlikely we will be in a position to export any time soon.

Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy outlined that co-production was on the horizon but with no timeline, no figures and no firm commitment to manufacture precision strike missiles here in Australia, this appears to be simply another example of the Government substituting press releases for progress.

What marvellous timing as well with Anthony Albanese due to finally have his first proper meeting with Donald Trump next week, almost one year on from his election as US President.

If a light-on-detail announcement before a potential meeting with the US President sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

Just last month, before the Prime Minister was set to fly to United Nations and hoped to secure a meeting with President Trump, he announced $12 billion towards the Henderson Defence Precinct here in WA.

Since the Prime Minister, the Minister for Defence and Premier Roger Cook all posed for photos at Henderson, the Albanese Government’s plans have come under heavy scrutiny.

While the Prime Minister promised $12b towards the precinct’s redevelopment, the total figure required by his Government’s own admission is likely to be $25b.

The Government can’t even answer basic questions on when and over what period its commitment will be spent.

If that’s not all, the boundaries and definition of the Henderson precinct haven’t even been finalised, and the planning work won’t be complete until 2027.

Still these factors didn’t prevent the PM announcing this would deliver 10,000 skilled jobs and an enduring shipbuilding industry.

The timing of these announcements says a lot. It suggests these decisions are being driven more by a motivation to please President Trump than being a true reflection of a co-ordinated plan to support Australia’s industrial base.

This lack of delivery isn’t just frustrating for industry, it’s dangerous for the country. In a deteriorating strategic environment, Australia can’t afford to wait years for decisions while our potential adversaries move ahead at speed.

Let me be clear, the Coalition wants the Government to succeed here, and we do not seek to play politics with national security.

But we have a duty to hold the Government to account and as far as I see it, Labor is failing in its most basic duty which is keeping Australians safe.

Fulfilling that duty begins with resourcing Defence properly. We cannot meet this moment on yesterday’s budget.

The Government must lift Defence spending to at least 3 per cent of GDP to match the scale of the challenge before us.

This also must be a real increase leading to increased capability, not an accounting trick that includes existing expenditure on defence pensions and Border Force, to artificially raise the rate.

West Australians understand what it means to build things that last. We’ve done it in resources, energy and agriculture, and we can do it again with shipbuilding. But we need a government that turns intention into industry and talk into tangible results.

Announcements don’t defend our nation.

Missiles will. Ships will. Skilled Australian workers will.

ENDS.

*Published in the West Australian, 16 October 2025

The Hon Melissa Price MP

Federal Member for Durack

Shadow Minister for Defence Industry

Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel

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Opinion Piece - Prospect Of Fighting Wars In Space Is No Science Fiction

Thousands congregated at the weekend for an event of national and international significance. I am not referring to the AFL grand final in Melbourne, but instead the start of the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.

This event is expected to draw more than 10,000 people from across the globe involved in the exponentially growing space sector.

And when I say exponentially growing, I mean it. McKinsey recently estimated the global space economy is worth US$630 billion and will grow 9 per cent annually to $US1.8t by 2035. To put this into perspective there are currently around 12,000 active satellites and this is projected to reach 60,000 by 2040.

Australia should be at the forefront of this revolution.

Our geographic location, vast open spaces, clear skies and homegrown talent and innovation provide us with a massive advantage in terms of launch capacity, world leading research and advanced manufacturing.

The last Coalition government recognised this opportunity and understood the importance of space for Australia’s future.

We established the Australian Space Agency and invested record amounts towards research and enabling infrastructure, as part of our goal to triple the domestic space sector to $12b and to create an extra 20,000 jobs by 2030.

We also recognised space as a contested area between nations and that we needed to stay ahead of our adversaries. That’s why we invested billions towards developing sovereign defence space capability.

Unfortunately, the change of government demonstrated a stark difference between our vision for space as being central to both national security and economic prosperity, and Labor’s vision for space as being a budget line to cut.

In their first term Labor ripped more than a billion dollars from our space sector. This included cuts from the Australian Spaceports program, the Australian Technology into Orbit program and the high-profile Moon to Mars program. The abolition of the $1.2 billion National Space Mission for Earth Observation was of most concern.

This investment would have seen Australia design, build and operate our own satellites to obtain information that is central to everyday life — from forecasting weather and responding to natural disasters through to managing our environment and supporting our farmers. This mission would have created 500 jobs and involved more than 100 Australian suppliers.

Consider these cuts in terms of Labor’s so-called Future Made in Australia agenda.

The then CEO of the Space Industry Association of Australia lauded NSMEO as the “most strategic and significant space public policy in 40 years” and that “Australia must be a country that makes things again” and that “the decision to cut NSMEO will leave Australia dependent on foreign providers”.

In recent months in my capacity as shadow minister for science and now as the shadow minister for defence industry I have been meeting with Australian space companies and industry representatives. A consistent message I have received is of disappointment in the Government’s attitude to the sector. The perception is that space is not a priority and that the Government doesn’t mind if we lose these opportunities to other countries.

The people I have met are patriotic innovators who are driven to establish a thriving industry in Australia that protects our national security, diversifies our economy and creates good local jobs.

Last month I moved a private members motion calling on the Albanese Government to re-prioritise Australia’s space sector including investing in our sovereign capability.

As I said then it’s not too late for the Albanese Government to turn things around. Hosting this year’s IAC means the eyes of the world will once again be on Australia. I understand the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Senator Tim Ayres, will be giving an address and I look forward to hearing it in person.

It’s critical the minister does not neglect this opportunity to right the wrongs of Labor’s first term. This address must signal we are open for business and that we want to be a global leader in space, not just a consumer.

A small initiative or one-off investment is not enough. We need a fully fledged strategy that will not only keep our existing companies from moving offshore, but a plan to grow the sector and to immediately invest in joint allied capacity in space.

The Coalition has called on the Government to increase defence spending to at least 3 per cent of GDP to make us as strong as possible as fast as possible. This means investing in all war fighting domains — including space.

Protecting our assets in space which enable our response here on Earth would further deter any aggression in our region. This is no longer science fiction and the Albanese Government must act now.

*Published in the West Australian, 29 September 2025

The Hon Melissa Price MP

Federal Member for Durack

Shadow Minister for Defence Industry

Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel

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Standing Up for Durack’s Future

Re-elected for a fifth term, I remain committed to standing up for the people of Durack. My priorities this Parliament include fighting against Labor’s live sheep export ban, tackling the housing crisis, securing affordable energy, improving outcomes for Indigenous Australians, strengthening cyber defences, and backing science and space. Thank you to the people of Durack for your trust - I will keep making your voices heard in Canberra.