Plans for new fighter jets on back burner despite Labor’s $50bn boost to defence spending

Plans for Australia to acquire new F-35 fighter jets have been put on the back burner as part of a major funding overhaul that the government says will deliver an overall increase in defence spending.

The Albanese government is pouring an extra $50bn into defence spending over the next 10 years and pledging toensure the military can project power further from Australia’s shores.

But the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, said the government had decided to keep the existing Super Hornets in service for longer because “they are doing great work” and the F-35 was “even more capable than we initially thought”.

He stressed the need for Australia to seek to project military power further from its shores “to contribute to regional security” and to “resist the coercion that would come from the disruption of our sea lines of communication”.

In a speech to the Sydney Institute two weeks ago, Marles said the former Coalition government had laid down a defence budget at “historically high levels of over-programming”.

While the government argues some level of over-programming is prudent to allow for unforeseen circumstances or delays, it says excessive use of the practice is “costly for industry and ultimately dishonest” because not all projects will actually happen and “everyone is just waiting for the eventual train-wreck”.