Stopping short of saying "red line," a senior State Department official said a US delegation warned the Solomon Islands about a US response should China attempt to have a "de facto" military presence there.
Morrison's "government has really dropped the ball on this," Peter Dean at the University of Western Australia said. "Why had the warnings last year not been taken more seriously?"
On lawmaker said the drone program was a "rare defense project that was going to deliver new combat capability in just a few years and is shelved after a decade worth of planning and investment."
“REDSPICE ensures Australia keeps pace with the rapid growth of cyber capabilities of potential adversaries. It provides new intelligence capabilities, new cyber defences to protect our most critical systems, and is a real increase in the potency of ASD’s ability to strike back in cyberspace,” the Australian prime minister said in a statement.
It was a busy week in Australian politics, with accusations of Chinese meddling in the opposition Labor party and a text message scandal.