Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Peter Jennings says whatever is going to happen in terms of security in the Indo-Pacific, "it can't be Australia alone".
"This is only something we will only be able to deal with if we have the United States here in significant numbers if we're working very closely with Japan, and hopefully India," he said.
"Australia alone, with six subs or twelve subs, we're not going to be a match for the power that is being assembled in the People's Liberation Army Navy and that's frankly just a reality of the power between various countries.
"I knew from the minute Malcolm Turnbull announced the preferred design of the ships a few years ago we were going to have to upgrade the Collins class and that those submarines would actually be the pointy end of the deterrence spear for at least the next 10-15 years."
US military boost on Australian shores in our own security interest
The Defence Minister has confirmed more US marines will be stationed in Australia s north as he warned of an increasingly complex and far less predictable period than any time since the second World War.
In a wide-ranging address to a security conference in Canberra, Peter Dutton warned not all nations are following Australia and its allies by prioritising peace in the Indo-Pacific. The prospect of military conflict is less remote than in the past, especially through miscalculation or misunderstanding, Mr Dutton told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
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It’s not clear what will happen to the family of four that has spent almost two years in detention on Christmas Island, but one thing is for sure: the Coalition is now in a state of turmoil over it, if determined to present a united front.