Is the world entering a new nuclear arms race?
Published: April 16, 2026
Is the world entering a new nuclear arms race?
News in brief
The Aussie dollar hit a four year high yesterday, pushing towards 72 US cents, while Wall Street hit new records on the back of the growing optimism about an end to the conflict in the Middle East.
The unemployment rate steadied at 4.3 per cent last month but is expected to rise later in the year as the impact of the war in the Middle East, and higher interest rates, hits the broader economy.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met with Malaysia’s leader Anwar Ibrahim, and the meeting ended with a deal for Malaysia to prioritise excess oil for export to Australia.
Australia may need to increase its fuel imports to meet demand, following a major fire at the Geelong oil refinery, owned by Viva Energy. Energy Minister Chris Bowen said it was not good timing, adding he will convene an energy minister meeting next week.
Car maker Rolls Royce has unveiled Project Nightingale, a new invite-only program that produces very small batches of bespoke vehicles, developed in close collaboration with the buyer, which will cost about $US3.5 million, or $5 million Aussie dollars, each.
Fear-o-meter
Defence Minister Richard Marles at the National Press Club.
“[National Defence Strategy] 26 affirms that Australia faces its most complex and threatening strategic circumstances since the end of World War II.
“International norms that once constrained the use of force and military coercion continue to erode. More countries are engaged in conflict today than at any time since the end of World War II, and this is occurring across every region of the world.
“In the face of this the Albanese Government is pursuing every avenue of increasing defence capability quickly: mostly through bigger defence appropriations but also through accessing private capital.
“The result is that we are now seeing the biggest peace time increase in defence spending in our nation’s history.”
Fear & Greed Q+A today
On the $2 billion pipeline of work in the Pacific, currently being overlooked by many Aussie businesses:
"On the Pacific side there’s a lot of development finance that’s come in over the last five years — Asian Development Bank, World Bank, the Australian government is out here in force, New Zealanders, the European Union — the list goes on. So there’s heaps of development finance coming into the region.
But from the Australian business side there’s opportunity as well, because the Pacific Islands don’t necessarily have heaps of domestic capacity to absorb all of this finance. If you’re looking at building a hundred million dollar project in a country with 10,000 people in it, you start asking questions about what expertise you need to bring in to actually deliver it. You can’t just build an airport magically.
So there’s a lot of expertise and opportunity in Australia to plug in... You don’t have to be a big business. Some of the contracts on the website are as small as $50,000 for things like water tanks. It really varies — it could be $180 million for a port, or $100,000 for a consulting job, or even $20,000 worth of equipment."
Defence spending is set to increase by $53 billion across the next decade with more money for drones and missile defence, and a shift away from land-based operations. Defence Minister Richard Marles yesterday released the 2026 releasing the National Defence Strategy and said Australia faces its most complex and threatening strategic circumstances since the end of WWII. He said the Cold War era of nuclear arms control, put in place to prevent a catastrophic nuclear confrontation, ended this year with the expiration of the last remaining agreement limiting the number of nuclear warheads deployed by Russia and the US. All nuclear weapon states are growing their arsenals once more, with the biggest growth in China, Marles said, and absent new arms control efforts, the world could be at the foothills of a new nuclear arms race.
Greed-o-meter
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