Defence & Security Podcast Network

Many critics often describe Australia's glaring lack of industrial and economic complexity as a major national security challenge, while others see it as a glass jaw impacting our ability to sustain ourselves in a fight or crisis. So, what is needed?

This glaring gap in our national resilience and survivability has increasingly figured in commentary and analysis as the Indo-Pacific emerges as the epicentre of the 21st century's great game between great powers.
Increasingly, this issue has also figured strongly in our broader conversations with allies, most notably the United States, which is demanding that allies lift their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP. Of that total, 3.5 per cent should be spent on military capabilities and the remaining 1.5 per cent on "enabling capabilities", including industrial capacity and infrastructure.
With Australia's defence spending in the crosshairs in more ways than one, shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability Andrew Hastie has ramped up his advocacy for Australia to reindustrialise to better enhance its national resilience and long-term economic and industrial capability and competitiveness.
Following his recent Anzac oration address to the University of Melbourne's Robert Menzies Institute, Hastie spoke with host Steve Kuper. The pair unpack the unique and intimate relationship between the US and Australia from the perspective of a special forces operator and how that relates to what the United States is now asking of us.
As part of this conversation, they discuss the need for a more considered industrial policy, unpacking the key hurdles that are limiting our industrial and economic competitiveness on the global stage and the pressures being faced by the allied industrial base.
The pair also unpack the economic and political opportunities that come from being a nation that, as Hastie describes, "makes things again" and how successive Australian governments have failed to capitalise on these opportunities to boost productivity, competitiveness and industrial capacity.
Additionally, they examine models of success, what Australia can learn from friends and foes alike, and embracing serious, considered and agile economic reform, including building and rewarding a more risk-accepting culture as a means of propelling the nation forward and finally breaking the shackles of the cultural dominance of tall poppy syndrome.
Finally, they also discuss an important and often overlooked question, with Hastie asking: "What sort of country do we want to be?"
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team

As AUKUS implementation accelerates, questions remain around Australia's role in the Indo-Pacific and how the nation should balance capability development with regional strategic priorities.
In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, Stephen Kuper, Robert Dougherty and Bethany Alvaro discuss a busy week across Australia's defence landscape, including the establishment of a new US Navy support activity in Perth to support personnel involved in Submarine Rotational Force-West under AUKUS.
The discussion explores the significance of the new naval support activity and what it means for the growing American military and defence industry presence in Western Australia.
The team also assesses $72 million of investment in a new large-calibre artillery forging facility in Queensland and the importance of expanding domestic ammunition production capacity.
Attention then turns to the delivery and testing of the AS9 Huntsman self-propelled howitzer and the increasing importance of mobile artillery systems.
On defence exports, the team discusses Thales' accelerated delivery of Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles to the Netherlands and considers the future evolution of the iconic Australian platform.
Rounding out the episode, the panel dives into Australia's ongoing support for Ukraine through Operation Kudu and the debate surrounding Australia's role in maintaining security and stability across the Indo-Pacific.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team

Australia's maritime estate is simply too vast for any conventionally manned fleet to patrol effectively – uncrewed and autonomous systems will prove key to maintaining Australia's maritime sovereignty.
With an exclusive economic zone stretching across roughly 8.2 million square kilometres and critical northern chokepoints through which virtually all the nation's fuel and essential imports flow, the conversation establishes from the outset that the case for autonomous maritime systems isn't about technological novelty, it's about geographic necessity.
In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, host Steve Kuper speaks with Elysium EPL director Michael "Mitch" Mitchell where they discuss the increasing proliferation of autonomous and uncrewed systems with the Royal Australian Navy. 
Drawing on his experience as a submariner, Mitchell's first and most important argument is the persistence imperative. Manned patrol vessels, however capable, are constrained by crew welfare, logistics and port rotations. Autonomous platforms carry none of that overhead. They can loiter on station for days or weeks, consuming far fewer resources and requiring only remote oversight. 
His second key argument is a conceptual reframe: stop thinking about platforms and start thinking about payloads. The hull, in Mitchell's framework, is just a delivery mechanism. What matters is the modularity of what it carries – sonar, radar, sonobuoys, acoustic modems, hydrographic sensors – and whether those payloads can be swapped rapidly to meet different mission requirements. 
They also discuss Elysium EPL's dual-use certification approach, deliberately avoiding ITAR-restricted components, which is presented as proof of concept for this philosophy in practice. 
Perhaps the most culturally challenging argument Mitchell makes concerns attritability. Australian defence procurement culture treats assets as things to be preserved. 
Mitchell argues that small autonomous vessels need to be reconceptualised as expendable ordnance, drawing an explicit parallel with the Nulka active missile decoy deployed in numbers and postures that would be unthinkable for crewed platforms.
Enjoy the podcast, 
The Defence Connect Spotlight team

This week's essential cyber security podcast uncovers a new threat actor targeting a raft of Australian organisations and asks the important question: Is AI profitable yet? Hint – it is not.

Cyber Daily's David Hollingworth and Daniel Croft open the podcast with the good news that Anthropic's Mythos platform is, in fact, coming to Australia, and they talk to the man behind the website that asks – and illustrates – the question of our time: who is actually making money from AI?
It's also been a shocker of a week for data breaches in Australia, and it looks like one threat actor is behind most of the activity. Organisations such as the ACMI, the Melbourne International Film Festival, and a corporate catering service have all been allegedly hacked.
Find out what's happening in cyber crime in Australia, right here.
Just another week in cyber security.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

What are One Nation's aspirations and policies for domestic manufacturing, infrastructure and military capability?

In this episode of the Defence Connect Podcast, senior journalist Robert Dougherty is joined by Senator Malcolm Roberts, who is representing Pauline Hanson's One Nation political party.
Senator Roberts holds a bachelor of engineering (honours) from the University of Queensland and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He previously worked as a mining engineer and general manager in the coal industry before entering federal politics.
The podcast conversation includes the following topics:
One Nation's defence policy framework and its focus on national self-sufficiency, logistics and manufacturing capability.
The importance of sovereign capability in food production, energy security and defence industry resilience.
Defence infrastructure proposals, including northern rail logistics corridors and domestic steel production.
The role of accountability, military culture and leadership within the Australian Defence Force.
Debate surrounding diversity initiatives, recruitment challenges and "warrior culture" in defence.
Australia's defence procurement strategy, including perspectives on AUKUS, submarine acquisition and foreign defence partnerships.
The balance between supporting domestic defence manufacturing while ensuring access to proven military capability.
Concerns regarding governance, bureaucracy and decision making within defence procurement and public administration.
Finally, the discussion wraps up looking at the future of Australian defence preparedness, including the intersection of infrastructure, manufacturing and national sovereignty.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team