RSL head blasts Anthony Albanese over defence spending in Remembrance Day shock

Retired army major-general and outgoing national RSL ­president Greg Melick said “even Neville Chamberlain”, the British prime minister who tried to ­appease Adolf Hitler, belatedly re-armed in the chaotic run-up to World War II.

With the Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles looking on at the Australian War Memorial, Mr Melick stunned an audience studded with top military brass by using the Remembrance Day commemorative address to blast Australia’s defence settings and spending.

Demanding a “grand strategy” to prepare for war, he said the ­nation’s defence would become a “matter of what we can afford and not what we need” without an ­integrated response to the ­deteriorating security situation in the Indo-Pacific.

Mr Melick’s intervention will increase pressure on the government to lift defence spending from about 2 per cent of GDP, following Donald Trump’s success in forcing America’s NATO allies to dramatically up their outlays.

Under current fiscal settings, Australia’s defence spending will increase marginally to 2.33 per cent of GDP over the next decade, despite the nation’s commitment to buying nuclear-powered submarines and other pricey kit for the Australian Defence Force.

Referring to the crisis Australia confronted in WWII as Japanese forces surged through southeast Asia, the 76-year-old said: “We should never forget that servicemen and women of my father’s generation commenced their training with broomsticks and won through with sheer courage, initiative and resilience. Sadly, these will not be enough in today’s strategic situation, especially with the ever-increasing technological nature of the battlefield and the vast ranges of modern ordnance and weapons. Australia needed to boost ­defence spending and significantly increase matériel reserves, ­especially in fuel and ammunition.”

Former chief of the army Peter Leahy, who serves with Mr Melick on the RSL’s defence and security committee, said it was fitting that he delivered the warning directly to Mr Albanese at the war memorial. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley was also present for the annual Remembrance Day ceremony.

“I think it’s timely that the ­outgoing national president of the RSL, in that location where you can look down Anzac Parade at the Australian parliament, ­reminds our politicians of their ­responsibilities to the veterans of past wars and their equal ­responsibilities to make sure that those who fight in our future wars are properly prepared,” the retired lieutenant general told The Australian.

Quoting an influential 2024 study by former British chief of the defence staff David Richards and eminent international defence analyst Julian Lindley-French, Mr Melick continued: “Grand strategy should concern the ­generation, organisation and ­application of still immense ­national means in pursuit of critical national interests. Grand strategy is not military strategy. Indeed, successful grand strategy never defaults to military strategy: the latter is simply a servant of the former and just one of several instruments of national power.

“Without a grand strategy to inform it, and without sufficient funding, our defence strategy risks becoming a matter of what we can afford, and not what we need.”

The Australian understands that Mr Melick did not clear his speech with the Prime Minister’s office, which declined to comment. The commemorative address at the war memorial is typically non-controversial, recognising the sacrifice of the fallen and the service of defence personnel in sombre terms. But that wasn’t the only message Mr Melick delivered on Tuesday in calling out the complacency of Australia in the face of the “most dire” security situation in the Indo-Pacific since the dark days of 1941, when the threat of Japanese invasion loomed.

In an apparent dig at Mr Albanese, he said: “Our Defence Minister is keenly aware of the issues facing his portfolio, so the challenge before him is to convince his colleagues to rebalance our priorities. Otherwise, in future Remembrance Day ceremonies, we may well regret the conflict we didn’t deter and remember those who we demanded to protect us without the necessary wherewithal.”

Mr Melick spent 52 years in the army reserve, rising from the rank of private to major-general. For a decade, he served in the special forces and was later named Colonel Commandant of the 1st Commando Regiment.

Beyond the military, he had a distinguished career in the law, becoming a statutory member of the National Crime Authority and NSW Casino Control Authority. His six-year term as national RSL president ended last month, leaving him free to speak his mind.

Mr Albanese will not welcome having his Labor government bracketed with that of Chamberlain before he gave way as wartime leader to Winston Churchill, who had been clear-eyed in recognising the menace of Hitler. Citing Britain’s belated re-armament drive after the Nazis moved on Austria and Czechoslovakia prior to WWII, Mr Melick said: “Even the much-criticised Neville Chamberlain, concerned by the growing power of Nazi Germany, ensured an unfortunately insufficient expansion of Britain’s defence capabilities from 1935, during which she spent increasing amounts on defence, peaking at 55 per cent of GDP in 1943.

“If Churchill’s exhortations had been heeded earlier, Britain might have been in a position, not only to win the Battle for Britain, but also to react to German expansion in time to prevent the takeover of the (Czech) Sudetenland and the ensuing world war.”

In his speech, Mr Melick also quoted then prime minister Alfred Deakin’s 1907 cautioning that the nation, lulled by decades of security, would not be attacked with “kid gloves or after convenient notice, but it will be when and where we least desire it, and with a remorseless fury”.

He said the inscribed names of Australia’s 103,000 war dead on the AWM’s honour rolls served as a stark reminder of the price they and their families had paid.

“Today should not only be a day of remembering past achievements; we must also remember the lessons of past conflicts to ensure we are appropriately prepared for what the future may bring,” he said.

“It is only by thinking deeply about the lessons of the past, and how they might ready us for the future, that we can ensure their sacrifices were not in vain.”