The Hon Pat Conroy MP, Minister for Defence Industry Capability Delivery & Minister for International Development and the Pacific will Address the National Press Club of Australia on "Making Australians Safer: A Reshaping of Defence Strategy in the Missile Age".
Australia is facing the most strategically complex environment since the end of the Second World War, marked by multiple conflicts that have highlighted the destructive reality of the rise of the ‘missile age’ in modern warfare. The advent of new long-range missiles, space and cyber threats, supply chain disruptions and deterioration in Australia’s traditional reliance on its strategic geography underscore a critical need to provide the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with the capabilities it needs to deter adversaries. This has seen the Albanese Government reshape Australia’s defence strategy, including committing up to $21 billion over the next decade to fund the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise Plan to protect Australia in the missile age. In his address at the National Press Club, Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery Pat Conroy will detail how the GWEO Enterprise Plan will deliver what the ADF needs over the short and long term in a way that will strengthen Australia’s sovereign defence industrial base, create secure jobs as part of a future made in Australia and make Australians safer.
Bio:
Pat Conroy is the Minister for Defence Industry Capability Delivery and the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, and a member of Cabinet. In the Defence Industry portfolio, he supports the Deputy Prime Minister on capability decisions by the National Security Committee of Cabinet and has Ministerial responsibility for managing capability acquisition and sustainment projects. Mr Conroy was first elected to Parliament in 2013 and holds the seat of Shortland on the NSW Central Coast.