Originally Posted by dermedicus
Fair points Bengo, but the question has to be how much can we realistically afford to do in terms of safeguarding our interests in distant parts of the world and what resources do we require to do that? I am not sure that aircraft carriers are part of that, but others take a different view.
On the subject of Australia, they are in the process of making their military more 'amphibious', with the acquisition of two large LPHs (both bigger than their last carrier) and preparing, I believe, one regiment at least for an amphibious, marine like role. I am not sure where they plan to use them, as invading Indonesia would be a tall order and I am not sure there is the will to start colonising South Pacific Islands. I am also not aware of them proposing to acquire and operate any F35Bs off of these ships.
The Canberra class "Landing Helicopter Dock" (LHD) is a recognition that Australian activities are most likely to be regional support type roles in which the LHD will undertake a base of operations type functions in relatively low intensity environments. I suspect they wouldn't last overly long in a major conflict. They are designed to operate rotary wing types, not fixed wing.
Canberra Class - Royal Australian Navy
Overall, they're just a mobile base to make things like the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands easier to achieve.