Sweeping shake-up of Defence to deliver ‘bang for buck’
Tess Ikonomou |
An independent Defence delivery agency will be established in the biggest overhaul of the department in 50 years to ensure billions of dollars are spent well and major projects delivered on time.
Three agencies within the department will become part of the newly formed agency to tackle cost blowouts and delays, Defence Minister Richard Marles announced on Monday.
These include the capability acquisition and sustainment group, which meets the needs of military equipment and supply.
A national armaments director will be appointed to lead it and will report directly to ministers.
“It will make sure that as we spend more money in the defence budget, we are doing so in a way which sees programs delivered on time and on budget,” Mr Marles told reporters in Canberra.
“The establishment of the defence delivery agency will see a much bigger bang for buck for the defence spend, and that is at the heart of the decision that we have made.”
No jobs would be cut as a result of the shake-up, he said.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the changes, which will come into effect from July, were the biggest reform to Defence in 50 years.
“These reforms, historic in nature … will deliver speed to capability for the men and women of the ADF, making sure that the record increase in the defence budget will be spent wisely, delivering equipment as soon as possible into the war fighters’ hands,” he said.
An auditor-general’s report released earlier this year revealed Defence had failed to provide formal updates to Mr Marles for almost two and a half years.
Opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor said the nation needed a properly funded defence force, which the announcement did not take Australia closer to.
“We’ve got to get beyond moving bureaucrats around on the page to outcomes and delivery, and after three and a half years, we’re well short of where we need to be,” he told ABC News.
Australia’s defence spending is set to rise from about two per cent of GDP to 2.3 per cent by 2033/34.
Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said the changes would not fix the underlying issues of cost overruns and accountability.
“The same group of people who have overseen Defence’s procurement mess are the same people who will head this new agency,” he said.
“Senior Defence officials, whether they are in uniform or inside the department, need to be held accountable for multiple billion-dollar failures.
“Changing the title on their business cards is not accountability.”
Mr Marles confirmed reports Defence is monitoring a Chinese military task group in the Philippine Sea.
“We do not have a sense of where it is going, but we continue to monitor it as we monitor all movements, until we know that task groups are not coming to Australia,” he said.
AAP
