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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n One Nation leader Pauline Hanson\u2019s plan to dramatically increase defence spending would cost taxpayers at least an extra $225 billion over the next decade, parliament\u2019s independent policy costings agency has found.<\/p>\n The analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office comes as Opposition Leader Angus Taylor urges Liberal supporters not to seek to \u201cblow the country up\u201d by deserting the Coalition for One Nation as the right-wing populist party soars in opinion surveys.<\/p>\n Hanson\u2019s surge in the polls \u2013 she has become Australians\u2019 preferred prime minister, according to this masthead\u2019s Resolve Political Monitor<\/a> \u2013 has focused attention on her policy platform, including defence spending and overhauling industrial relations to make it easier to fire \u201clazy\u201d employees.<\/p>\n Hanson previously echoed billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart by calling for an increase in defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product, but last week clarified that she favoured a target of 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence spending.<\/p>\n This matches the level the Trump administration has urged allies and security partners to spend as it calls on them to do more to meet their own needs. Australia currently spends about 2 per cent of GDP on defence, a figure set to rise to 2.4 per cent by 2037.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to increase it,\u201d Hanson told Sky News last week. \u201cI\u2019d like to see more defence spending in drones and missiles. We cannot just rely on the United States to come to our aid. We have to be able to defend ourselves as a nation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking at 3.5 per cent of the GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n A new paper released<\/a> by the Parliamentary Budget Office, which costs political parties\u2019 election promises, finds that increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2037 would cost the budget an extra $225 billion over the next decade compared with the current policy settings.<\/p>\n The Coalition\u2019s plan to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP would cost an additional $106 billion compared with the current spending trajectory over the same period.<\/p>\n The budget office analysis notes that it can be difficult to quickly step up defence spending, because of the complexity of the projects involved.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cAcquiring hardware or increasing staffing can involve a significant lead time, particularly for activities such as design or tender processes, and operational costs are naturally tied to these assets,\u201d the analysis states.<\/p>\n \u201cAs such, in practice, except for \u2018shovel-ready projects\u2019 that are prepared and lacking only funding, increasing cash outlays may involve a lag.\u201d<\/p>\n Hanson said she would fund extra spending for defence by abolishing the Department of Climate Change, cutting funding for Indigenous programs, scrapping the SBS, reducing ABC funding and ending duplication in health and education funding.<\/p>\n A One Nation spokesman said last week that Hanson\u2019s call to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence was based on a pledge by NATO nations to spend 3.5 per cent on core defence and a further 1.5 per cent on related areas such as infrastructure, the defence industrial base, civil preparedness and resilience.<\/p>\n This means One Nation would have to spend significantly more than $225 billion to hit its overall 5 per cent defence funding target.<\/p>\n Spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2037 would cost an extra $579 billion over the decade, according to the budget office.<\/p>\n Leading defence economist Marcus Hellyer said this month that immediately lifting core defence expenditure<\/a> to 5 per cent of GDP would increase the defence budget to about $692 billion over the four-year forward estimates, up from $277 billion under the current policy settings.<\/p>\n Asked about reports of an exodus of Liberal Party members abandoning their party memberships for One Nation, Taylor said on Sunday that \u201cthe answer right now is not to blow this country up\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the frustration that people have right now. They\u2019re frustrated that we didn\u2019t win the last election,\u201d he told Sky News. \u201cThe answer isn\u2019t to blow the place up.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Taylor said new party president Tony Abbott was \u201cdoing a great job at getting out and energising the membership, retaining those who are frustrated, and many are, I understand that\u201d.<\/p>\n Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Ted O\u2019Brien said he completely disagreed with Hanson\u2019s view, expressed at the National Press Club last week, that Australia should cut foreign aid funding to Pacific nations that also receive support from China.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, the idea that you effectively hold a gun to the head of our Pacific neighbours \u2013 that\u2019s not what a friend does,\u201d O\u2019Brien told the ABC\u2019s Insiders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe relationship that we have with the Pacific Islands is far deeper than development money, and if you were to narrow the debate to just that, well, you\u2019ve got to be careful who you want to go into a bidding war with.\u201d<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/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![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8e00090aa4e1e1dd615052613eb882c5254966ce.jpeg\")
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at the National Press Club on Wednesday.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Hanson\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/d2035d6666f226169eabab3bb7c4afb38ba7e37a.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Federal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b08daf4e9d3f6d0dc0fc97cc896c574f931c46ca.jpeg\")
Federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said he understood the frustration among people who had shifted support from the Coalition to One Nation.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/87df8f40b167484d1fe6b4c247c3cdf7f9da931e.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769630235_926_41bbd81bdfa5a98f70781cb78575df66d9219510.png\")
Matthew Knott<\/a> is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-750835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750835","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=750835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}