The risk of a clash with China is only getting worse, Australia’s secretary of Defence warns, as Beijing’s military grows more assertive and the two navies come into “close contact, more often”.

“The risk of an incident has heightened over recent years and the trends continue to be very worrying for us,” Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty told senators in a blunt assessment of the deteriorating security outlook in the Indo-Pacific.

“The strategic balance is shifting in the region … that is changing the broad strategic concerns that we have seen in place. During a period of strategic contestation, increasing competition, there’s clearly anxiety and countries respond to that in different ways,” he said.

In February, a Chinese navy ship performed a live-fire drill in the Tasman Sea without n

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