Be that as it may, Mr Hugh White and his ilk are the cronies of the Hawke/Keating labour govt who professed the Defence of Australia (DoA) policy, thereby whittling down Australia's forces to the point where we struggled to get the job done in little East Timor; a short hop across from Darwin. DoA has been proven to be totally incapable of meeting the current operational requirements and has thankfully been replaced by the DoD and TPTB with a smaller version of forward defence and force projection, hence the significant investment in the ADF over the last 6-8 years. Hugh White continues to peddle his beliefs, as head of the ASPI think tank, yet IMHO has struggled to move into the current international climate from his "use the land-mass of Australia" to defend us policy.
He might be a nice guy but his views are as old and dated as those ties my uncle wears to appear "hip" and "with it" in front of the new girl at work.