Defence Minister Peter Dutton has marked Anzac Day by invoking the spectre of Nazi Germany and declaring that Australia can only preserve peace by preparing for war.

Mr Dutton also directly compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler and again suggested China was on a similar path to Germany in the 1930s in the lead up to World War II.

Mr Dutton made the comments on Channel Nine when he was asked about the Prime Minister's warning during an Anzac Day service in Darwin about an emerging "arc of autocracy" — a clear reference to China and Russia that Scott Morrison has used repeatedly in recent speeches.

"The only way you can preserve peace is to prepare for war, and to be strong as a country" Mr Dutton told Channel 9.

"Not to cower or be on bended knee or be weak. That's the reality." 

Mr Dutton said the government had done that by boosting defence spending, as well as citing the government's plan to build nuclear powered submarines and develop advanced military technology under the AUKUS pact. 

When asked about the lessons of Anzac Day, Mr Dutton warned that the prospect of conflict was not a distant one. 

"People like Hitler and others aren't just a figment of our imagination or that they're consigned to history. We have in President Putin somebody at the moment who is willing to kill women and children. And that's happening in the year 2022." 

Mr Dutton has repeatedly compared China's growing ambitions to those of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, which annexed territory in Europe ahead of its invasion of Poland in 1939.

He made a similar comparison today, saying that the Chinese were "through their actions and their words" on a very deliberate course.

"We have to stand up with countries to stare down any act of aggression to make sure that we can keep peace in our region and for our country," he said, adding it was pointless for people to "curl up into a ball" or pretend that "nothing is happening." 

"If we think that that is going to last us forever, then… we will repeat the mistakes of history.

"We're in a period very similar to the 1930s. And I think there are a lot of people in the 1930s that wish they would have spoken up much earlier in the decade, than they had to at the end of the decade.

"I think that's the sobering reality of where we are, it's the sobering reality of the intelligence that we receive." 

Government accused of not preparing Australia

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, who was also in Darwin for the dawn service, said he agreed with Mr Dutton that Australia needed to be prepared, but the government had dropped the ball in making sure Australia's military capability was up to scratch.

"We are at a moment in our history where our strategic circumstances are as complex as they were at the end of the second world war and we certainly need to prepare," he said.

"Under this government we've seen six defence ministers in nine years, so it shouldn't be a surprise that under this government we've seen a failing in the submarine procurement

"Which means in the last 10 years we've seen a capability gap open up of 20 years in terms of the successive submarines to the Collins [Class]."

Mr Marles also accused the government of failing to maintain relationships in the Pacific, specifically Solomon Islands, and for allowing the Port of Darwin to be leased to a Chinese company.

Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O'Connor has also called for Labor to be briefed on what the government plans to do if China crosses what Mr Morrison described as the "red line" and moves to build a naval base on Solomon Islands.

Independent senator and former submariner Rex Patrick also criticised Mr Dutton's comments, saying: "The problem is we won't be prepared until at least 2040. There's a huge gap between the government's belligerent rhetoric and the reality of their Defence project failures," he tweeted.

"Cancelled projects everywhere, frigates in 2033 and subs in 2040."

The government's decision to tear up an existing submarine contract last year in favour of a new one for nuclear submarines has meant the first subs may not hit the water until 2040.

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