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We'd be better off without our armed forces

Australia spends a fortune on defence – money that could be invested in improving health, education and the security of our energy, food and water.

Some think that defence expenditure is the price of freedom – ultimately measured in blood and treasure.

Given the foreseeable risks to Australia’s national security, might we better off adopting a policy of lightly armed neutrality – becoming a threat to none and a friend to all?

Would our interests be best served by ‘demobbing’ our troops, selling off our kit and investing the proceeds in the good things of life?

Speakers

For:

• Alison Broinowski was an Australian diplomat until 1996. Her last overseas assignment was at the Australian Mission to the UN in New York. Her PhD is in Asian Studies at ANU. She has written or edited 11 books on Australia’s interface with Asia and with the United Nations, two of the latest being Howard’s War 2003 and Allied and Addicted 2007. Alison holds Visiting Fellowships at ANU and UNSW, and is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Wollongong.
• Ratih Hardjono works in Public Affairs in Indonesia. She studied at Sydney University, and was Australian correspondent for Kompas, Indonesia’s leading daily newspaper for fourteen years, specialising in reporting on countries undergoing the transition from military rule to democratisation and also on countries at war. She is the only Indonesian woman to have received a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University. A former Presidential Secretary for Abdurahman Wahid, she established the first civilian Indonesian presidential office since The Sukarno regime of 1965. She is author of two books, including White Tribe of Asia, exploring the relationship between Australia and Indonesia.
• Edison Yongai was editor of one of the most outspoken newspapers in Sierra Leone when he was charged with seditious libel and locked up for criticising the corruption of the previous government. Before and during the country’s war he taught English and French to secondary school students in Sierra Leone. Edison arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2001 and completed a Masters in Journalism at Wollongong University in 2002. For seven years Edison also established and worked as a volunteer for the Sierra Leone Radio Program the main weekly source of information for Sierra Leoneans and most other Africans. Currently Edison is working full time as Team Leader and Volunteer Coordinator for Mission Australia.

Against:

• James Brown is an Army officer and Military Associate at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He has served in Iraq, the Solomon Islands, and Afghanistan. James commanded a cavalry troop in Southern Iraq and later served on the Australian Defence Force headquarters in Baghdad. He received a commendation for his work in Australia’s military contribution to the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. He writes regularly for the Lowy Interpreter blog.

• Jim Molan retired from the Australian Army in July 2008 after 40 years. Jim has been an infantryman, an Indonesian speaker, a helicopter pilot, commander of army units from a thirty man platoon to a division of 15,000 soldiers, commander of the Australian Defence Colleges and commander of the evacuation force from the Solomon Islands in 2000. In April 2004, Major General Molan deployed for a year to Iraq as the Coalition’s chief of operations. In August 2008, General Molan published his book Running the War in Iraq. In retirement Jim is a commentator on security and military issues in the Australian print and electronic media, writes regularly for a number of journals, and is a director of St James Ethics Centre.

• Ian McPhedran is the author of Soldiers Without Borders. His first book, The Amazing SAS: the inside story of Australia′s special forces became a national best seller. He has been a journalist all his working life and has covered conflicts in Burma, Somalia, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1993 he won a United Nations Association peace media award and in 1999 the Walkley award for best news report for his expose of the navy′s Collins class submarine fiasco. He is the national defence writer for News Limited.

Chair:

Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre. Simon spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy. He was inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Foreign Policy Association, based in New York. Simon has been Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre since shortly after it was founded.