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April 24, 2026 \u2014 9:53am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie says Australia has allowed an overreliance on the United States military to weaken the country.<\/p>\n The opposition spokesman for industry and sovereign capability argued in a speech at the Robert Menzies Centre on Thursday that the nation must rebuild its industrial and defence capabilities<\/a> to rebalance the ANZUS Treaty and be a better partner to Australia\u2019s historic ally.<\/p>\n \u201cTo put it bluntly, if ANZUS is going to continue for another 75 years, we need to invest in our industrial base and our defence force,\u201d Hastie said.<\/p>\n The Afghanistan veteran and former SAS soldier<\/a> said since the ANZUS treaty was signed in 1951 and Australia\u2019s defence became more reliant on US power, \u201cwe forgot the hard lessons of war, and outsourced our security to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt has cost us sovereign capabilities like a robust defence industry, and our strategic freedom of action in ways that we are now discovering.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Hastie said for the past 30 years Australia had neglected its commitment in the treaty to develop its capability for self-defence and to protect partners.<\/p>\n He said ANZUS was built on the understanding that both parties would build their military capability, and Australia must lift itself back to the standard of self-reliance set up by Robert Menzies in the post-war era.<\/p>\n Hastie added that the Australian navy had not kept pace with drone and missile technology and was not prepared to deploy vessels to a conflict, such as the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if we send young Australians into harm\u2019s way, we\u2019d be sitting ducks without the intimate support of the US navy.\u201d<\/p>\n Hastie said the US had made clear in its National Defence Strategy it would seek only to guarantee its own strategic interests.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump confirms this reality almost every day with his robust messaging about America\u2019s traditional allies.\u201d<\/p>\n Hastie said Trump\u2019s war in Iran had also exposed Australia\u2019s \u201cindustrial atrophy\u201d, as the global oil shock squeezed markets and sent petrol and diesel prices soaring. He called for Australia to drill for and refine its own oil to ensure supply into the future.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/44803c69df122aeda04fc613a05f8eafda0aa005.jpeg\")
Andrew Hastie said Donald Trump was a transactional president and had proven he was focused on the United States\u2019 self-interest.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"Federal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776071174_401_9c153a7c15d1e11233b36b224c63da148c3a5578.jpeg\")
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Brittany Busch<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 24, 2026 \u2014 9:53am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-626824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}