Some grim language in the Defence strategic update. "Australia’s strategic environment has deteriorated more rapidly than anticipated" in the 2016 Defence White Paper. The PM warns the post-covid world will be " poorer, more dangerous and more disorderly"

More blunt language here: "major power competition has intensified and the prospect of high-intensity conflict in the Indo-Pacific, while still unlikely, is less remote than in the past." 2/

Even more stark: increasing chance of military miscalculation, which "could conceivably include state-on-state conflict that could engage the ADF where Australia’s interests are threatened. Accordingly, Defence must be better prepared for prospect of high-intensity conflict" 3/