[throwaway000021]

After a lifetime of being anti nuke, I do now believe Australia has to "nuke up".

I also believe now that we need at least 2 very large U.S. bases on our soil, and if the U.S. aren't interested then maybe the U.K. or the Europeans.

Expansionist countries could easily see Australia right now as a virtually undefended, resource rich sweet piece of fruit to be plucked, and given that Australia's traditional allies seem to be internally engaged, there's plenty of room for such expansionists to start laying the foundations that will allow them to exert such control in the future.

[Guthur]

Who exactly would have capability and resources to mount an invasion and then supply the necessary force to occupy a territory the size of Australia.

[greglindahl]

China.

Also worth noting that the force needed to occupy a country is mainly proportional to the population.

[Trundle]

Indonesia is right next door and outnumber us 10 to 1.

India and China are also reasonably close.

[throwaway000021]

No invasion would be needed.

All thats needed is to get several thousand armed people to take control of Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne parliament and hold all the politicians under lock and key. And whilst Australia is too stunned to work out what has just happened, land ships and troops in Sydney then Melbourne.

There you have it - control of Australia.

[threeseed]

China is a very real threat to Australia. They are already unhappy about how close we are to the US, our freedom of navigation routes through the South China Sea and our perceived anti-China rhetoric around national security.

And just to show you that they aren't messing around. They just funded the development of a port in Vanuatu which many have suspected as being suitable for future naval purposes:

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-great-wharf-from...

[greglindahl]

You don't have enough money to nuke up, unless you plan a much bigger defense budget.

[threeseed]

Really ? Australia has the 13th highest GDP in the world.

Higher than Israel, Pakistan and North Korea which all have them.