The retired lieutenant general, Peter Leahy, said he doesn't see "much of a future for defense industry here in Australia, so we've got to pick up our game. I don't think we can be taken seriously in the halls of Washington."
A new report from a leading Australian thinktank says there's a "disconnect" between Australia's strategic priorities and the money to fund capabilities to tackle them.
"Well, there's one country in the region that's undergone the biggest peacetime militarization since the Second World War and that's the People's Republic of China," said Australian Shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hastie. "So they can make comments like they have, but it's kind of ironic given what they're doing with their military."