Richard Marles Blasts Coalition’s $21B Defence Plan as ‘Pathetic Whimper’

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With just 10 days to go before Aussies head to the polls, Peter Dutton and the Coalition have rolled out a massive new promise: a whopping $21 billion defence boost if they win government.

Fresh off his showdown with Anthony Albanese on Nine’s The Great Debate, Dutton announced plans to ramp up defence spending to 2.5% of Australia’s GDP by 2030, which would be a serious cash injection — about $25 to $30 billion extra per year.

So where’s all that money going? According to Dutton, it’ll help recruit more personnel, lock in extra F-35 fighter jets, and bring the much-talked-about AUKUS nuclear sub deal across the finish line. And that’s not where it ends — the Coalition’s long-term goal is to push spending all the way up to 3% of GDP within a decade, aligning with Donald Trump’s call for the same in the US.

In a statement, Dutton didn’t hold back:

“The prime minister and the deputy prime minister regularly tell Australians that we live in the most precarious period since the end of the Second World War… yet Labor has done nothing about it, other than rip money out of defence.”

For context, Labor’s current defence plan has spending reaching $100 billion annually by 2034, or about 2.33% of GDP. So Dutton’s promising to go bigger — and faster.

When asked if China’s rising influence was the motivation behind this move, Dutton admitted it’s part of the picture — but pointed to a broader shift globally.

“Let’s be frank… it’s also what’s happening in Europe. The prospect of Russia moving beyond Ukraine has NATO countries extremely worried. Countries like Germany and Italy are stepping up — and so should we.”

Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie backed him up, saying the Coalition will share a full cost breakdown before election day on May 3.

“There are trade-offs, of course. But what price do we put on defence?”“We need to be able to defend ourselves with rising authoritarian threats, the war in Ukraine, instability in the Indo-Pacific, and Trump’s America-first approach.”

Hastie also took a swipe at Labor’s defence recruitment efforts, saying the ADF is in a “crisis” — struggling to bring in new recruits and retain experienced personnel.

“We’re not keeping good people in uniform,” he said. “And readiness is suffering.”

But Labor’s not letting this go unchallenged.

Defence Minister Richard Marles hit back hard, calling the Coalition’s plan a “pathetic whimper” and accusing them of lacking a real plan.

“You can’t trust the Liberals on defence. There’s no clear funding path, no breakdown of spending — it’s not a policy, it’s a headline.”

So, the battlelines are drawn: Dutton’s Coalition wants to make defence a major ballot box issue. Labor’s brushing it off as empty posturing. Either way, expect defence to be a hot topic in these final campaign days.

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