Paterson, the shadow defence minister, wasn’t alone in that opinion. Fitzgibbon, who as defence minister in the prime minister Kevin Rudd’s government delivered the 2009 Defence White Paper, found little to disagree with him about. Bipartisan consensus, as both observed, is highly characteristic of Australian defence policy. That takes money, and a public mandate for higher defence spending will need to be built. The government will need to make the trade-offs inherent in raising defence spending concrete, understandable, sensible and reasonable to the public.