Pauline Hanson addresses Put Australia First protest in Melbourne; Anthony Albanese, Jodie Haydon marry at The Lodge; Hong Kong fire death toll rises
Australia is monitoring a Chinese naval fleet heading for an unknown destination in the Philippine Sea, Defense Minister Richard Marles said.
“I want to confirm today that Defense is monitoring the China PLA Task Group currently in the Philippine Sea,” he said.
“We constantly maintain maritime domain awareness in our geographical regions.
Chinese frigate Hengyang off the coast of Australia in February.Credit: access point
“We have no idea where he is going, but we continue to monitor him as we monitor all movements.”
Chinese warships operated near Australia in February, prompting a rare statement from the Australian Defense Force about monitoring their presence.
Marles revealed the Chinese fleet was being monitored while outlining changes at the Ministry of Defense on Monday.
He did not accept that money had been wasted at the Labour-run ministry, but blamed previous Coalition governments for the explosion.
“You can always do better and … we feel an absolute obligation to make sure the money is spent in the best way possible,” said Marles, who also served as prime minister while Anthony Albanese was on his honeymoon.
“When the last government came to power, we saw huge explosions in defense programs, both in terms of the budget applied to them and the schedule.
“And going forward, we need to make sure that this is done cost-effectively, but that programs are delivered on time and within budget.”
Marles did not give a figure for how much Australia will allocate to defense spending in the next budget.
