- The Guardian
- Issue #2188
Military spending is sold as “defence,” but much of it is spending for war-fighting, projection and attack. Australia is now budgeting about $58.99 billion for defence in 2025-26, while the United States is moving around the trillion-dollar mark in military spending, showing the grotesque scale of resources capitalism diverts into destruction.
MADNESS
Australia’s consolidated defence budget for 2025-26 is $58,988.7 million, which works out to about $161.6 million a day and about $6.7 million an hour. The United States’ FY2026 national defence budget request is $1.01 trillion, equal to roughly $2.77 billion a day and about $115.3 million an hour Why is there poverty? Why is there homelessness? Why are public hospitals stretched, public housing underfunded, schools short of resources, and workers told to tighten their belts, when governments can always find billions for war preparations?
High military spending steals resources from public education, hospitals, social welfare and environmental protection, and makes Australia poorer, not safer. The same wealth now poured into war-making (not defence) could instead fund free health care, free education, free childcare, First Nations justice, free public transport, major wage rises, public housing, cheaper power, and environmental repair. This is not simply a budgeting mistake. Militarism is tied to capitalism at its imperialism stage and to the pressure of US imperialism, with Australia’s ruling class aligning the country ever more tightly to Washington’s war agenda.
AUKUS AND PRIORITIES
The AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine madness has been costed at around $368 billion. That means Australia is prepared to pour up to $368 billion into an environmentally destructive fleet of war-fighting submarines designed for conflict.
At the same time, the country has no nationally owned merchant fleet capable of serving the public good in a crisis. For maritime workers, the contrast is sharp. Billions are available for attack submarines, but not for a publicly owned shipping fleet, stronger coastal shipping, decent port infrastructure, disaster response, or secure maritime jobs that serve the people rather than US strategic objectives.
WAR ABROAD, MISERY AT HOME
Recent reporting on the US war on Iran put the cost at around $1 billion a day. At the same time, independent reporting and surveys have put Palestinian deaths in Gaza above 75,000 by early 2025, far beyond earlier official counts. The lesson is plain. Imperialist war burns through staggering sums of public wealth while destroying entire societies and taking countless lives. Working people are told there is no money for social need, yet there is always money for missiles, bases, warships and military contractors.
Security does not come from armaments, military alliances with the United States, or the hosting of US bases on Australian soil. Real security comes from jobs, housing, food, clean water, education, health care, democratic rights and peaceful coexistence with the peoples of the region. That is why the fight against extreme military spending is inseparable from the fight against capitalism itself. Capitalism generates exploitation, militarism and war. Socialism is the necessary alternative if humanity is to put social need above profit and peace above imperialist domination.
You are directly paying for this war program. It is called a “defence” budget, but much of it is really money for attack, escalation, and war preparations.
