By Tim Coyle*
‘Reflecting frustration within the government at claims it has not spent enough on defence, (Defence Minister) Marles said military spending did not rise “as a result of think tanks, or former generals, or washed-up bureaucrats” but because of vigorous debates around the cabinet table’. (Sydney Morning Herald 12 April 2026).
Minister Marles, in presenting the 2026 National Defence Strategy at the Canberra Press Club, evinced the above sideswipe at what he might alternatively describe as the ‘chattering classes’.
