Australia alert to threats from north

Australia's military appears likely to move to the north and west of the continent to counter the rise of China and new threats to its offshore gas and oil reserves.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith has announced a force posture review that will heavily influence the basing of new hardware, including strike fighters, air defence destroyers and new carrier-sized amphibious ships.

The review will also be linked to a similar American review of its global forces - a joint Australia-United States working party has already been set up - and its findings will feed into the planned 2014 defence white paper.

"All of the security and strategic challenges are to our north - the growth of the Asia-Pacific region, the growing importance of the Indian Ocean rim," Smith said.

Although there has been some shift to the north - especially army bases near Darwin and a fighter base further south at Katherine - and expansion of the navy's big base near Perth, Australia's military strength has largely remained concentrated in the southeast.

"In World War II ... we saw that places like Townsville and Cairns, Darwin and Perth were essentially secondary defence areas," Smith said.

"That can no longer be the case, with the growing significance of the Indian Ocean, the growing significance of the Asia Pacific and the growing demands on Australia to be in a position to assist the Asia-Pacific region in the face of ongoing tsunamis and earthquakes and the like."

Although avoiding specific reference to China, the review will consider Beijing's growing reach and influence, emphasised by its decision to boost defence spending by more than 12 per cent, focusing on naval power that includes the nation's first aircraft carrier.

The rise of Indian power also concerns Australia and the review, led by former defence secretaries Allan Hawke and Rick Smith, has been told to report on "the growth of military power projection capabilities of countries in the Asia Pacific".

Smith also pointed to the continuing influence of Japan and South Korea, the likely evolution of Indonesia from regional to global player, and the growth of Asean economies.

"We need to make sure that all our force posture is right, that we've got the geographic disposition of our forces right," Smith said.

A key concern is Australia's reserves of oil and natural gas off northern Western Australia and in the Timor Sea, increasingly vulnerable as potential dangers widen beyond traditional threats to terrorism and economic warfare.

Most of Australia's oil and gas reserves lie off northern WA and the Northern Territory and, with planned new investment of A$200 billion ($245 billion), the value of LNG exports is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 27 per cent to a forecast A$18 billion in 2015-16.

"We're not just faced with the traditional security considerations," Smith said.

"There are modern considerations and energy security is one of those."

At present, the military's presence in the west includes HMAS Stirling, the big naval base near Perth which is home to its submarine and Anzac frigate fleets, an air force training base, and two "bare bones" fields in the remote north designed to accommodate strike aircraft in a crisis.

One of the "bare bones" fields could become a base for some of the RAAF's planned F-35 Lightning II strike fighters, and Smith flagged the possibility of other moves, including one or more of the new air warfare destroyers and amphibious warfare ships.

Yet more shifts could be proposed.

The use of Australian facilities by US forces could also be expanded.