
The annual Hunter Defence conference has heard that the Hunter Region will have an increasingly important role to play in the defence of the nation amid a deteriorating security outlook, typified by yesterday's news of the Solomon Islands refusing to allow US and British warships to dock in its waters.
Hunter Defence chairman Tim Owen opened the three-day conference at Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley today with a blunt appraisal of the situation facing Australia, given its geographic importance and the widely held concerns over China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.