Andrew Robertson | Australia's Defence Policy

John in conversation with Rear Admiral (Ret) Andrew Robertson AO, retired senior officer, Royal Australian Navy. Andrew is one of Australia's most distinguished and decorated senior naval officers. He and John discuss military and naval history, defence strategy and the state of Australia's current defence policy.

#AustralianNavy #DomesticSecurity #Military #History
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0:00-0:54 Introduction
0:54-4:04 What is the significance of the Battle of the Coral Sea?
4:04-9:02 What was Australia’s alertness like prior to WWII?
9:02-14:12 Why was Australia so unprepared for WWII?
14:12-19:37 What was the catalyst for the US-Australia alliance?
19:37-23:18 Does America have the capacity to fight a war on multiple fronts?
23:18-29:43 Do Australians recognise the need to prepare for war?
29:43-48:18 How can Australia secure itself against military threats?
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Conversations feature John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, interviewing the world's foremost thought leaders about today's pressing social, cultural and political issues.

John believes proper, robust dialogue is necessary if we are to maintain our social strength and cohesion. As he puts it; "You cannot get good public policy out of a bad public debate."

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Andrew Robertson

[kenelmtonkin]

Fascinating sweep of Australian naval history here with a great Australian, with a clarion call for us all at the end. I commend these John Anderson "Conversations" to you. High quality thinkers, judiciously hand-selected.

[Buzzboxrd]

Brilliant. These interviews should be on national television nation wide.

[jamesmwilliams]

Brilliant sobering interview Mr Anderson, than you for sharing them all with us and I thank this man for his service ❤️🇦🇺

[alexanderjaques]

What an excellent interview, trust Anderson to gracefully and intelligently get the best out of someone as distinguished as Rear Admiral (Ret) Andrew Robertson AO. Wanted to hear more from both about the idea of defending one's culture, how can one defend what one doesn't value?

[cambridzyrianccc]

Why dont we have individuals like Anderson and admiral Robertson running our country. He was 93 years old at the time of this discussion, and he was more sharp and competent than the current US president

[PaulinaWest]

Thank you for this wonderful interview.

[frankszanto]

Thank you. On preparedness - earlier this decade Australia nearly lost its steel making industry (both Pt Kembla and Whyalla). If our steel plants closed, we would have had to order the steel for any ships we might want to build from overseas. But then again, most of our heavy industry is gone, so we have lost much of the know-how on building stuff.

[jamesoconnor]

My first Captain, HMAS Quickmatch. Kept him supplied with crime novels!

[favoriteblueshirt]

Less climate nonsense and more realism about what makes culture and society vunerable. This is a small step in that direction. An excellent conversation.

[johng]

Thank you John and Andrew for a very enlightening sharing of views. 
Our Island paradise, I have thought for many many years (having the advantage of a few under my belt !!), must be an attraction to numerous Countries of high density population.
 
I seriously think that should one of those Countries decide that more land is required to feed their own we would not be in a position to stop a military attempt. 

However more importantly I think an attempt to influence our “sharing” of our huge land mass would be not by military but rather by emotional persuasion of the minds of a younger generation who are coming up through the ranks of our society.

I suspect our “representatives” in the future will be far more receptive to discussion than I would be.

An excellent discussion Gentlemen. Thank you again.

[Mark_Williams]

If he's still with us, I imagine the Australian Navy's decision to build a nuclear submarine fleet must be immensely satisfying to Rear Admiral (rtd) Robertson. 😃

[lisanorris]

We need to be building now. Everything that we are capable of building. We must return to a can do mentality.