Anthony Albanese spruiks Medicare hotline; Peter Dutton Coalition better budget pledge to rely on cuts

Coalition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie says his party’s $21 billion boost to defence will be about better protecting the country.

Speaking on Sky, Hastie said the Labor government was unprepared, while a Dutton government would increase spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2030.

“We’re not going to get caught with our pants down if the strategic environment changes and we find ourselves in a crisis,” Hastie said.

“We need to invest in AUKUS, but we’ve also got to work out how, as a nation of 27 million people, with a vast continent, that we can defend ourselves, and how we can generate mass cheaply, so asymmetric capabilities, strike capabilities, we’re going to focus on those things, because that could give us the edge.

“A lot of Australians don’t know, but a lot of our small medium enterprises here have assisted Ukrainians, particularly in drone and counter drone warfare over the last three years and so we’ll be looking to Australian businesses to deliver some of that capability.”