Andrew Hastie has conceded nine years of leadership tussles affected the previous government's defence acquisitions, calling the decision to buy French submarines a mistake.
Andrew Hastie has conceded political instability hindered some of the previous government's defence acquisitions, noting the decision to acquire conventional submarines from France was a mistake.
Those comments, made this morning at a Business News Politics & Policy event, come one week after Jim Chalmers unveiled the government’s first budget since Labor came to government in May.
Defence spending is budgeted at $38.3 billion in FY23 and is set to grow to $44.1 billion over the forward estimates.
Mr Hastie, who was assistant defence minister under prime minister Scott Morrison and is now the opposition's defence spokesperson, has previously told Business News defence spending should be greater than 2 per cent of GDP, mirroring similar commitments made by the US and other NATO members.
That followed comments made in July to UK-based think tank The Henry Jackson Society, in which Mr Hastie repeatedly called for greater government investment in ‘hard power’, such as defence personnel, hardware, and infrastructure.
Pressed on why more hadn’t been done on this front while the Coalition was in office, Mr Hastie admitted leadership changes within the Liberal Party of Australia had at times encumbered good decision making.
“We went through six defence ministers in nine years,” he said.
“That was largely the consequence of leadership changes that occurred under Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.
“When you do a leadership change it causes a massive reshuffle, not just of ministers but of all the staff who make stuff happen.
“We lost time.”
Mr Hastie specifically mentioned Christopher Pyne’s decision, made while he was defence minister for the first time under Mr Turnbull, to acquire 12 submarines from France as an area in which the previous government had erred.
“We selected the wrong submarine in 2016,” Mr Hastie said.
“Last year, we went for the AUKUS deal [and chose] nuclear submarines. So we lost a lot of time.”
Still, the former SAS soldier was resolute, noting defence spending had ballooned in real terms by 55 per cent from when the Coalition took over from Labor in 2013.
“[W]e invested in defence,” he said.
“I think we could’ve done a better job of capability acquisition, and this is an ongoing problem.
“But certainly under our leadership we have set up the Albanese government’s success and they continue with the work that was done.”
Elsewhere, Mr Hastie admitted frustration with the performance of the Liberal Party WA in recent years, while batting away suggestions he had any immediate desire to become the party's federal leader.
He previously backed Peter Dutton in the 2018 leadership spill and this morning said he hoped to be serving as defence minister in Mr Dutton's government, should the Coalition win the next poll, in 2027.
