Major General Greg Melick AO RFD ED, now retired, is a great Australian who has served this country for more than 50 years.
From 1966 until 2018, Major General Melick served in full-time and part-time capacities in the Australian Defence Force Reserves. He rose through the ranks to Major General and became Australia’s most senior Reserve officer in 2007.
He was later appointed to the Australian War Memorial Council in 2015 and recently finished his tenure as President of the Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) after 6 and a half years.
Despite this long and proud history of serving Australia, former Prime Minister Paul Keating decided it was right to make a rare public interjection to insult the retired Major General, calling him ‘a dope’.
He did so because Major General Melick used his Remembrance Day address to call for more defence spending, in order to deter conflict and to protect more Australians from being added to the Roll of Honour.
While Mr Keating’s name-calling is disgusting enough, I most take umbrage with the former PM laying the worst possible intentions on Major General Melick stating he ‘wants to drag us into a military exchange with the Chinese’.
As a proud member of the Liberal Party and someone who has also called for defence spending to rise to at least 3% of GDP, let me be clear this isn’t about getting us into a war, it’s about preventing it.
Enhancing our military capability through AUKUS and sovereign mass production of missiles, drones, cyber, undersea systems and real sustainment of existing kit is first and foremost designed to deter aggression.
This isn’t a new idea.
The concept ‘if you want peace, prepare for war’ goes all the way back to Rome in the 4th century. This has carried through time, with US President Ronald Reagan famously adopting a doctrine of ‘Peace Through Strength’ in the 1980s.
Mr Keating’s interjections on foreign and defence policy demonstrate a clear failure to recognise the current strategic environment is at its most dangerous since the Second World War - a fact the Albanese Government’s own defence officials have confirmed, while highlighting that conflict breaking out in our region is becoming less remote.
On the same day as Mr Keating blasted Major General Melick for fearmongering, the Director General of our domestic intelligence agency ASIO warned China is “conducting multiple attempts to scan and penetrate critical infrastructure in Australia and other Five Eyes countries”.
According to Mr Burgess they are targeting water, transport, telecommunications and energy networks, pre-positioning for a potential sabotage of critical infrastructure.
These grey-zone activities appear to be increasing at the same time as the Chinese Communist Party undergoes the largest military build-up of any nation since the Second World War without providing any strategic assurances.
Australia needs to respond to these escalating circumstances, and I will not criticise Major General Melick for using an opportunity where the nation is focused on our defence forces to make that point.
In June the Prime Minister said Labor ‘will always provide for capability that’s needed’.
That stands in stark contrast to revelations that under Labor dozens of workers maintaining and upgrading the RAAF’s F-35 fighter jets have been redeployed as part of an austerity drive within Defence.
This is just one example of a broader problem of severe underfunding in Defence with each of the ADF’s service chiefs reportedly warning that sustainment budgets are being slashed, leaving critical platforms and the nation exposed.
What is the purpose of having multi-million-dollar equipment if it’s not properly maintained and ready for use at a moment’s notice? Does Labor really think in case of conflict the enemy would wait for us to catch up?
We need to be a ready force, one to deter and two to respond if required.
Having attended the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition in Sydney last week, I heard again that the Albanese Labor Government’s problems go far beyond sustainment.
The current view from defence industry is that if you aren’t involved with submarines, you have just about Buckley’s chance of getting anywhere. We must deliver AUKUS, but not at the expense of the rest of our capability needs.
The Prime Minister’s number one responsibility is to keep Australians safe. He once said his word is his bond. It’s time he keeps his word, ends the cuts and properly funds our ADF.
Unfortunately, it appears Major General Melick’s plea has fallen on deaf ears with the Hon Matt Keogh, Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs, simply saying that it was ‘probably not something that we should be focusing on a day like Remembrance Day’.
This is quite a surprising take, given that many in the Labor Government, including the Prime Minister, seemed to have been more focused on the anniversary of the Whitlam dismissal than marking Remembrance Day.
Instead of maintaining the rage, the Government should be focused on maintaining and enhancing our defence capabilities.
ENDS.
*Published in The Canberra Times, 17 November 2025
The Hon Melissa Price MP
Shadow Minister for Defence Industry
Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel