Australia's conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton pledges defence spending boost if elected

Peter Dutton pledges to boost Australia's defence spending to 3% of GDP, echoing Trump's "peace through strength" policy.

Australia's conservative opposition party leader Peter Dutton, trailing in polls related to the May 3 election, has pledged to boost defence spending to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within a decade, as the Trump administration pushes allies to spend more on security.

"You don't achieve peace through weakness," Mr. Dutton said in Western Australia state on Wednesday (April 23, 2025), outlining his Liberal Party's defence policy, echoing U.S. President Donald Trump's line of "peace through strength".

His party would offer the United States military greater access to northern Australia, he added.

Focusing on the conservative party's strength of national security in the final stretch of the campaign, Mr. Dutton, a former Defence Minister, said if he was elected his government would spend A$21 billion ($13.41 billion) more than the Labour party on defence over five years to reach 2.5% of GDP, and 3% within a decade.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's Labour government in 2023 committed to spend A$368 billion over three decades on AUKUS, Australia's biggest ever defence project with the United States and Britain to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. The Labour party has previously said it would lift defence spending by A$50 billion over a decade, but pledged no new money in this year's National Budget.

The Liberal party’s defence spokesman Andrew Hastie, a former special forces officer in Afghanistan, told reporters the defence force was suffering a recruitment and retention crisis.

"We are going backwards on AUKUS, this is a multi-generational nation-building endeavour and they are failing," he said.