A Shorten Labor Government will conduct the first review of Australia’s force posture since 2012 as one of its first acts. 

This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government with a plan for Australia’s national security, and the Liberals who only see defence through the prism of their leadership chaos. 
 

The world looks different from when Australia’s last force posture review was undertaken by the former Labor Government in 2011-12. We now face the most challenging set of strategic circumstances since the Second World War.  
 

A Shorten Labor Government will put the Pacific front and centre of our foreign and defence policy, which will be reflected in this review. 
 

Since the last Force Posture Review, there have been two Defence White Papers, and a bi-partisan commitment to spending two per cent of GDP on Defence, including the acquisition of 72 joint striker fighters, 12 submarines, 12 offshore patrol vessels, nine frigates, 21 pacific patrol boats and 211 combat reconnaissance vehicles. 
 

The review will consider whether the Australian Defence Force personnel, infrastructure and assets are correctly geographically positioned to meet our future strategic challenges.  
 

While the Liberals have spent six years focussed entirely on how they can make Defence decisions that help their personal political interest, a Shorten Labor Government is focussed on making decisions that work in the national interest. 
 

A Shorten Labor Government will give Australia a government which makes decisions in our national interest. The Liberals would give us their fifth defence minister in six years.