Page 6 - Australian Defence Mag March 2020

6 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
INDUSTRY VOICE LAUNCHES AS NEW DEFENCE ADVOCACY BODY
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
companies that are owned and run in Aus- tralia with the decision making and as- set base under the control of Australians.
“Our role is twofold,” according to Indus- try Voice CEO Brent Clark. “Help CASG and educate industry. We want to work with all players to get better outcomes in terms of operational sovereignty.”
Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price spoke at the launch of the group, revealing that her 100-day review of her portfolio has seen her develop five priori- ties that she wants to address (in no par- ticular order):
• Enhance CASG performance delivery to be a ‘strong client’.
• Expand small business access to Defence.
• Increase the number of exporting Aus-
tralian businesses.
• Build Australia’s skilled defence indus-
try workforce.
• Ensuring Defence’s grants, innovation,
science and technology programs are con- tributing to enhancing ADF capability.
She has instructed the diarchy along these lines to deliver this vision. As part of the drive she announced that the Centre for Defence Industry Capabil- ity (CDIC) will undergo a second review as she is still not happy with the perfor- mance of the body.
“We’re waiting for people to walk through the CDIC door when we should be dragging them through it,” she said, confirming that she wants to see more re- gional businesses engage with the body.
Minister Price also confirmed that in- dependent audits on all AIC plans for ma- jor programs will be undertaken to make sure that primes are delivering as prom- ised on these plans. And that there will be significant consequences for failure to comply, she said.
Graeme Dunk also presented data from his research into operational sovereignty based on an examination of longitudinal AusTender data, a topic he is currently ex- ploring in his PhD at ANU.
“LET me be clear, Industry Voice rec- ognises the need for the large foreign owned Prime Contractors to undertake major programs, and Industry Voice recognises that Australian companies must compete to ensure value for money for the Australian taxpayer,” Thomas Global Systems chairman and Industry Voice founder William Hutchinson said in launching the group at Parliament House this week.
“Industry Voice also recognises that the Capability and Sustainment Group (CASG) has a requirement to ensure that these programmes are delivered to agreed costs and agreed schedules. However, we believe that Australian owned companies are more than capable of making low risk, cost effective schedule driven contribu- tions to these massive programs.
ABOVE: The aim is to deliver genuine, measurable and enforceable AIC to the SME community.
“Our members have turned out in force today because they recognise it is now or never in terms of getting a genu- ine and enforceable Australian Industry Capability (AIC) policy. Our immense defence programs have the potential to massively upskill Australia’s workforce and technical knowhow, but only if we have a truly measurable and enforce- able AIC policy.”
And with that, the first shots in holding prime companies to account in terms of the $200 billion recapitalisation program from the Liberal government were fired.
Born of frustration from a growing number of Australian owned and oper- ated SMEs, the group has membership of about 30 companies. The founding mem- bers are Thomas Global systems, HI Fra- ser Group, Redarc, Sage, Bridon, Quick- step and Cablex.
The aim is to deliver genuine, measur- able and enforceable AIC to the SME com- munity with a focus on companies that the group defines as ‘operational sovereignty’;
COMING UP NEXT ISSUE
■ SeaPower–navalhelicoptersand the RAN goes 5th Gen
■ Space – Australia is well and truly in the space race. The role of industry and government.
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