It is rare that a critical article on Australia's military spending appears in one of the corporate newspapers but on October 25, the Melbourne Age published such an article by senior correspondent Daniel Flitton entitled 鈥淒oes Australia's military need such tentacles of defence?鈥.
Flitton argued that while Australian governments have 鈥渢alked the good talk of regional co-operation and engagement for decades鈥 their 鈥渟taggering shopping list of new military hardware was signalling a very different message to the region.