No Higher Priority: A Blueprint for Immediate Action on Australia’s Defence 2025–2028. This item is unavailable.No Higher Priority: A Blueprint for Immediate Action on Australia’s Defence 2025–2028

For decades, Australian federal governments have sought to deliver national security cheaply, spending no more on defence than deemed absolutely necessary. The result is that the nation has seriously underinvested in defence capability. This has occurred because of complacency in defence and policy circles, and the belief that Australia’s major threats had receded following the end of the Cold War. However, the reality is that Australia’s strategic outlook is rapidly worsening just as its ability to deter aggression and defend itself has been degraded. The Australian Institute of Public Affairs has published this book as a blueprint for immediate action on Australia’s defence, 2025–2028. Defence experts Peter Jennings AO, Michael Shoebridge and Marcus Hellyer make 36 recommendations for the adoption of measures for strengthening Australia’s military power.

Peter Jennings AO is the Director of Strategic Analysis Australia , the Principal of Peter Jennings Strategy Consultants Pty Ltd, providing strategic advice to several Australian and international businesses and to Commonwealth agencies, and a columnist for The Australian.

Michael Shoebridge is Director of Strategic Analysis Australia. From 2018 until September 2022, he was the Director of the Defence, Strategy and National Security Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra.

Marcus Hellyer is Head of Research at Strategic Analysis Australia. Previously he was a Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute where he unpacked defence budget, capability, and industry issues.

Scott Hargreaves is the Executive Director of the IPA. He is passionate about Australia and its people, and securing their freedoms and prosperity for the next generation.