News about Pat Conroy

The first of at least four new unmanned surveillance aircraft roughly the size of a Boeing 737 has been spotted on its long journey across the Pacific to Australia. The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton - also known as the AUS 1 - left a Californian Naval Air Station on Thursday en route to Katherine via Wake Island. The drone is expected to land at RAAF Base Tindal on Saturday.

Foreigners will be able to join the Australian Defence Force under a fast-track to citizenship. As part of the national defence strategy unveiled in April, eligibility criteria will be expanded to allow more people to join the defence force.

Australia will provide a further $31 million in aid to help Ukraine's energy and humanitarian needs, as Kyiv pleads for a coal shipment ahead of their winter.

A French plane arrived in Brisbane on Wednesday night carrying 103 Australian citizens and family members after 84 Australians and 24 other nationals were repatriated to the Queensland capital on Tuesday. A total of 187 Australians and their family members had now returned from New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a post on social media platform X. There are about 500 Australians in New Caledonia and some 300 in total had registered their interest in coming home with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Pacific Minister Pat Conroy told ABC TV on Wednesday.

Tensions are raging at the highest levels of Australia's military, with Defence Minister Richard Marles (left) being asked to clarify rumors that he is at loggerheads with top officials in his department. Mr Marles reportedly laid down the legislation to about 25 to 30 military chiefs and bureaucrats, including Secretary Greg Moriarty (right) and Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell, in a closed door meeting late last year. Mr Marles told his team in no uncertain terms that it might be able to provide him with excellence, with the tirade described as 'uncomfortable' and 'giving them a rocket' by two sources to The Australian Financial Review.

In response to growing military presence in the region, Australia's navy is expected to be armed with more than 200 Tomahawk missiles. The Australian Government will announce a $1.7 billion investment in new, hi-tech missiles on Monday to raise the Australian Defence Force's strike power. The purchase came as a result of the ADF's medium-range, high-speed missile defense capabilities that were lacking following the recommendations made in the defense strategic study.

In a contract worth up to $895 million, the US State Department has approved the selling of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Australia.

Australia is either too timid or too stupid to embrace nuclear power, according to Ben Fordham, and now is the time to reconsider nuclear energy as the government acquires nuclear submarines. When it came to nuclear power, Australia was'stuck in the dark ages', according to the 2GB radio host, but harnessing the power source would be a 'game changer.'

The Albanese government has decided against buying a $2 billion precision-guided missile system, which has been used with ferocious effect by Ukrainian forces against the enslaved Russians. High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, the so-called 'god of war', can strike targets 300 kilometers away with deadly precision and are part of Australia's military's biggest upgrade, considering China's growing long-range capabilities. Despite the eye-watering price of up to $2 billion, some analysts predict that Australia will need to outlay even more to improve its defenses in an increasingly volatile world.