Joe Hockey tells the AFR “All Australians should have the chance to invest in our own national security”

Jim Chalmers says the nation’s $3.5 trillion retirement savings pool will play a bigger role in defence and national security as the federal government pushes for more institutional investment as expenditure grows.

Having last year flagged housing and renewable energy as the two nation-building priorities that the superannuation sector should prioritise, the treasurer on Wednesday said that there was “an opportunity for the defence industry to be a bigger part of our thinking when it comes to the role of superannuation and other institutional investors in our economy”.

“It’s time that super funds step up to the plate and give everyday Australians the chance to invest in their own national security,” said Joe Hockey, the former treasurer and Australian ambassador in Washington DC whose Bondi Partners consultancy advises and invests in defence firms.

“Old perceptions that national security is a high-risk investment class are dead wrong.”

“The previous role of government as the sole provider of hardware and software for national security has come to an end, [and] they are increasingly looking for private-sector solutions that can be adapted to meet modern national security needs.”

“Once upon a time NASA was the sole provider of space hardware and software to the US government; today a large number of private operators supplement NASA, including in rocket launches.”

Read the article in full here at Australian Financial Review.