Page 28 - Australian Defence Magazine - June 2018
P. 28

Steady as she goes
THE headline figures for the 2018 Budget are no surprise for many ADM readers: $36.4 billion (including the Australian sig- nals directorate, which is now a stand alone agency answering to the Defence Minister, led by Mike Burgess and LTGEN John Frewen) and $160.7 billion over the for- ward estimates period of four years.
In the era of the DIIP and lack of detailed supporting website, the Budget has become the go place for program num- bers and how major programs are progress- ing. Details of these programs can be seen in tables 1 and 2.
Perhaps the biggest shock in the papers are related to people. The numbers sur- rounding the Defence workforce have dropped significantly, particularly around the APS. Figures last year showed the head count stable at 18,200 APS across the four years. The 2018 figures (seen pie chart on P32) tell a different story.
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
The Budget for Defence is steady as she goes as a raft
of policy beds down. The focus is clearly on delivering
the streams of capabilities outlined in the 2016 Defence White Paper, Defence Integrated Investment Plan and Defence Industry Policy Statement along with the National Shipbuilding Plan, Defence Export Strategy and Defence Industrial Capability Plan.
28 | June 2018 | www.australiandefence.com.au
BUDGET
OVERVIEW
2018 Defence Budget:


































































































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