How much does the Australian government spend on the military? Eighty-seven million, nine hundred and eighteen thousand, four hundred and fifty-four dollars and seventy-nine cents. Every day.

That’s $32.1 billion a year, according to The cost of defence, a new report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The expenditure is 1.93 percent of GDP and rising, writes author Mark Thomson. It’s rising despite the fact, as the report itself admits, that over the last years “money was handed back unspent on multiple occasions”.

This is justified by the spectre of China’s increasing influence, and economic and political instability in Ukraine and parts of the Middle East and Africa. And don’t forget that catch-all bogeyman the Islamic State.

Imagine what that money could do, if put towards something that actually helped people, rather than be put aside for killing and aggression. Fifteen new hospitals each with 800 beds could be built every year

The report says that “everyone agrees that we need to tighten belts”. Yet while the government is pressing ahead with cuts of $80 billion to health and education, the report estimates that spending on the military will increase to $100 million per day in just six years’ time.