NT defence boost needs to be ‘first and not the final step’ of reinvestment

ANU Professor John Blaxland says the defence training boost which is to be unveiled for the Northern Territory today is “excellent” but needs to be the “first step and not the final step across the north”. The prime minister will announce the $747 million defence boost in Darwin today saying his commitment is to "keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians in a job". Mr Blaxland said, "it is a significant boost to what we’ve seen in the past but what we’re also seeing in light of the news over the last few days is that in fact it’s really not enough." “What we did back in the 1980s and 90s was we invested in defence infrastructure across the north of Australian … right across from northern WA to northern Queensland. "A lot of that infrastructure is now aging and not really robust enough for what the future might hold. "The facilities there need to be made more robust, more able to take a greater flow of trainees, soldier and airmen, but there’s more that needs to be done. “The old airfield infrastructure that was designed back in the 80s when we were thinking of defence of Australia back then, in a much more benign set of circumstances, really needs to see this be the first step, not the final step of reinvestment across the north."

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