“A great Coalition government will always be better on national security and economic management,” he said while campaigning in Western Australia.
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At 3 per cent of GDP, defence spending would account for almost 12 per cent of total federal government expenditure. Only the GST, which goes to the states and territories, would make a greater call on the budget than defence.
Defence would surpass both the NDIS (forecast to be 9.1 per cent of total budget spending) and the age pension (9 per cent), which are currently the second- and third-largest government expenditures.
The Coalition’s policy would take defence spending as a share of GDP to its highest level since Australian forces were in Vietnam in the early 1970s.
Since then, expenditure in areas such as the aged pension (9 per cent of the budget) and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (3 per cent) have grown sharply, while governments have introduced completely new spending such as the NDIS (9 per cent) and the private health insurance rebate (1 per cent).
Dutton would not be drawn on how the Coalition would spend the extra resources directed into defence, but said it opened up the options available to the government.
“Drone capability and guided weapons, our munitions and our capability across most platforms, including frigates. That all becomes a reality again. Our cyber defences where Labor has pulled money out,” he said.
On Thursday evening, Dutton attended a sunset ANZAC ceremony at the Sydney Opera House where his friend, mining magnate Gina Rinehart called for a gargantuan rise in defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP.
Rinehart said she supported “boosting our defence manufacturing here as well as our budget to 5 per cent of GDP”.
There are only a handful of countries that have defence spending above 5 per cent of their nation’s GDP, and many of those are involved in current conflicts - including Ukraine, Russia and Israel.
Defence Minister Richard Marles is also at the event. Earlier in the day he rejected criticisms that Labor’s target was behind the Coalition’s 3 per cent target.
“Plucking a number out of thin air, putting it into a press release and calling that a defence policy is a joke. It is not as though Peter Dutton can waive a press release in the face of our adversaries and they’ll suddenly run from the battlefield.
You actually need to be thinking about what capabilities you are seeking to build, what you are seeking to acquire, and have deep thought about how you’re going to make that happen.”
Independent economist Chris Richardson said the problem with such large announcements as the Coalition’s defence plan was that it was uncosted with no detail about its long-term impact to the budget.
He said both sides of politics had not been upfront about the pressures on the budget, the need for more spending in key areas and ways to lift the speed limit of the entire economy.
“What really cheeses me off is that this is an important election, given everything that’s going on around the world. The world is changing fast. But both sides of politics have effectively sat on their hands for the past two decades and not taken the courageous decisions that have needed to be taken,” he said.
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In a public debate in Melbourne, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor confirmed his party’s final costings would be released next week. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is expected to release the government’s costings in the first half of next week.
By the time both costings are public, millions of people are expected to have already cast their ballot for the May 3 election.
Peter Dean, who co-authored the government’s defence strategic review, backed the Coalition’s funding targets, saying: “I don’t know anyone in the strategic policy community who doesn’t think we should be spending more money on defence.”
But he added: “I’m shocked the opposition didn’t say what they plan to spend the money on or how they’ll pay for it. Their plan is really lacking specificity.”
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