Episode 131

Episode 131

From Asia Pacific Defence Reporter by APDR

March 16, 2026 · 19 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Australia's involvement in the Middle East conflict and the implications of government actions on Defence project transparency.

We discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and Australia's reasons for jumping in so quickly in support of the US.  But first some words on yet another assault on transparency by the government scrapping the ANAO's annual review of major Defence projects. Ministers Marles and Conroy will be delighted that an important source of scrutiny has been removed - as will the Defence bureaucracy. As for sending a Wedgetail and AMRAAMs to the UAE, it looks like the government was spooked by a 1am Truth Social post by President $Trump - this move by an Australian Prime Minister previously proud of the ALP's 2003 decision not to support the US invasion of Iraq. As for the current air campaign against Iran - it could get much worse and it's not at all clear that the government has thought this through. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Topics covered

  • Middle East conflict
  • Australia-US relations
  • government transparency
  • Defence projects
  • military support
  • air campaign

Keywords

  • Middle East
  • Australia
  • US support
  • Defence
  • transparency
  • air campaign
  • Iran
  • ANAO
  • ALP
  • military

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ANAO, ALP

Places: Australia, UAE, Iran

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