Ex-RSL chief Greg Melick urges Albanese to boost defence spending

Former RSL Australia President Greg Melick has called on the Albanese government to lift defence spending, questioning the nation's preparedness for future conflicts. In a speech to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Tuesday during the Remembrance Day National Ceremony, Major General Melick - who retired last month - launched a critique on the state of the nation's armed forces. "Despite the fact that this nation has been involved in wars more often than not since Federation, I fear we remain complacent," he said. "Without a grand strategy to inform it and without sufficient funding, our defence strategy risks becoming a matter of what we can afford and not what we need." For many years, Major General Melick said, the RSL's defence and security committee had been "agitating, without apparent success, on the need to ensure that we bolster our defence spending and significantly increase our reserves, especially in fuel and ammunition, to best equip our dedicated servicemen and women before we send them into harm's way." While Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy looked on, Major General Melick said Mr Marles was "keenly aware of the issues facing his portfolio." "The challenge before him is to convince his colleagues to rebalance our priorities," he said. "Otherwise, in future Remembrance Day ceremonies we may well regret the conflict we didn't deter and remember those who we demanded to protect us without the necessary wherewithal." He said Australia needed to "appropriately prepare for a conflict we hope never comes." Quoting former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, he said: "When we are attacked it will not be with kid gloves, or after convenient notice, but it will be when and where we least desire it and with remorseless fury." "It could be argued that little has changed since that warning, as the Defence Strategic Review has outlined," Major General Melick said. "The Indo-Pacific region has never been as dire since 1941." He expressed concern over recent polling suggesting only 30 per cent of Generation Z were prepared to fight for their country. "Let us today honour the service and sacrifice of all who have worn the nation's uniform and the families that love and support them ... and give thanks to the remarkable men and women who stand ready to defend our freedom and our values." Australia spends about 2 per cent of GDP on Defence, projected to hit about 2.4 per cent by the middle of next decade. United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has called for defence spending to be lifted to 3.5 per cent. Opposition defence spokesperson Angus Taylor said on Tuesday that Australia was "facing the most dangerous circumstances since the Second World War" and that the Albanese government was "underfunding our services at a time when we need the Australian Defence Force to be the strongest we can make it". Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously said that his government will fund defence based on what is needed on a continually reassessed basis, rather than setting an arbitrary percentage of GDP target. The government is investing an extra $70 billion in defence over the next decade, with $10.6 billion of this over the next four years. It has committed an initial $12 billion towards a major naval shipbuilding and maintenance hub at the Henderson Defence Precinct in Western Australia, part of Australia's obligations under pillar one of the AUKUS submarine deal. Defence spent $16.6 billion on acquisitions in 2023-24 and more than $17.4 billion in 2024-25.