Australian defence policy needs to engage in first principles debates about the purpose and future of defence spending, independent of our allies, as Hugh White suggests in the book How to Defend Australia. > Alongside Hugh White’s traditional security analysis, we must consider non-traditional security threats and elevate this analysis in order to protect Australia’s traditional and human security interests, especially the ‘threat multiplier’ effect of climate change. We need to consider a ‘dual use’ military fit to deal with climate emergencies. > Strategic choices are not limitless. Any nuclear options should be rejected as likely to be inconsistent with customary international law and our foreign policy objective of promoting a rules-based order. > Increased spending should be directed to conflict prevention, climate response, development assistance and preventative diplomacy. > The constituency for strategic studies needs to be broadened and deepened. Debates of this magnitude about defence spending and nuclear options affect all Australians, not just security specialists and conversely, the area of strategic studies becomes an critically important area for the Australian academy.