Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has taken aim at Australian military after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that China’s attack on Taiwan was “imminent”.

“We are not going to sugarcoat it,” Hegseth said at a security conference in Singapore on Saturday.

“The threat China poses is real.”

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Following Hegseth’s comments, Joyce on Monday took aim at Australia’s level of preparedness.

“I would say the Labor Party have been more focused on a war against the weather with net zero than they have been focused on what could really do damage to every section,” he said on Sunrise.

“(Recently, a) Chinese flotilla went around Australia, and we couldn’t even get a naval vessel to track them.

“We had to get the New Zealand navy to track them.

“We had to get a commercial flight to spot them, as they did live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea, adjacent to Sydney.

The US has repeatedly said it would back Taiwan if China invades the self-governing island and, on Saturday, Hesgeth reassured US Indo-Pacific allies they would not be alone in facing China’s military and economic might.

Taiwan remains a major global flashpoint.

China has conducted numerous exercises to test what a blockade would look like of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and the US has pledged to defend.

China’s army “is rehearsing for the real deal,” Hegseth said.

‘Lots to worry about’

China has a stated goal of having its military have the capability to take Taiwan by force, if necessary, by 2027, a deadline that is viewed by experts as more of an aspirational goal than a hard war deadline.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese resisted calls for Australia to increase defence spending.

Currently, Australia spends 2 per cent of its GDP, or $56 billion dollars, on defence, and the government says this will grow to 2.35 per cent by 2024.

According to the US, the defence spend isn’t enough.

Joyce said there were “a lot of things to worry about”.

“You have to become as powerful as possible as quickly as possible,” he said.

“(We’ve) got a platform of submarines that at times you can’t deploy.

“You can’t deploy most of them. Sometimes you can’t deploy any of them.

“I mean, we are just miles away from where we should be and at the same time, with the cost of energy, we’re losing the capacity for a manufacturing industry to underwrite the strength of Australia.

“We’re actually losing it.

“What major manufacturer wants to move here?! No-one.”

Government defends budget

Labor minister Tanya Plibersek defended Australia’s spend on its defence.

“We’ve announced that we’ll spend an extra $10 billion, just over the next four years, and close to $60 billion extra over the decade,” Plibersek said.

“The way we decide how much we’ll spend on defence is to decide what we need to keep Australians safe.

“The equipment we need, the personnel we need, and then that’s how much we spend.

“We don’t pick a number out of the air and then work out how we can spend that many dollars.

“So, we’re upgrading our surface fleet, as you know, and modernising our surface fleet.

“We’ve got the very large investment in AUKUS, we’re pursuing additional long-range missiles, including being able to make those missiles here in Australia.

“When the coalition were last in government, they made more than $40 billion worth of announcements that were unfunded in the budget.

“So, as well as describing to Australians what we need to keep us safe, and investing in those things, we’re actually putting the money on the table to invest, to upgrade the equipment that we have.”

- with AAP