Liberal Senator Jim Molan says a brilliant scheme to answer the "good people" in defence industry who say the ADF is "too small" to assert national "sovereignty" against China is to focus on making a bigger and more lethal defence force.
Mr Molan made the remarks amid Australia's struggles to express its national "sovereignty" with its defence force against China.
"These good people in defence industry they point out that it's very hard to have a defence industry in Australia for the simple reason that the Australian Defence Force is too small," he told Sky News host Paul Murray.
"Well I've got a really brilliant scheme: let's make the Australian defence force big enough because we need a more lethal defence force, we need a more sustainable defence force that can fight for longer and we need a bigger defence force."