Excessive military spending
Article 26 of the UN Charter calls for the “least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources.”
Australia is subservient to US foreign policy objectives and as a result defence budgets have been skewed to suit US objectives. This has meant that Australian Government outlays on the military are both astronomically expensive and mostly inappropriate for Australian peoples’ needs.
The Australian budget for the military in 2022-2023 is $48 billion and an estimated quarter of a trillion dollars over the next ten years. The great majority of tax payers’ money goes overseas to privately owned weapons manufacturers.
While defence of a state is necessary, the cost must not be too high – economically, socially or environmentally. An impoverished nation has little left worth defending.