Page 4 - Australian Defence Mag Sep 2020

4 EDITORIAL
SEPTEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
BY THE NUMBERS
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
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SINCE you last picked up an ADM, two ma- jor policy documents have been released by the government; the Defence Strategic Update (DSU) and the Force Structure Program (FSP). The two combined effec- tively make a White Paper in all but name. These papers were then complimented by a new Cyber Security Strategy from the Department of Home Affairs soon after.
The FSP and DSU pledges $270 billion over the decade for military capabilities, including $15 billion for cyber war, $55 billion for land forces, $75 billion for naval forces and $65 billion for air. A further $7 billion is earmarked for space capabilities. The Cyber strategy will see $1.67 billion invested under its auspices.
“As I’ve said, this is a journey. Yes, we are looking at ways that we can deliver more information out there. I think we’ve got a great start in those two documents.”
I have been asking this question at every opportunity since the release of the 2016 White Paper and IIP as the plan was to update the public version every six months in line with the internal update schedule.
While senior Defence officials have pro- vided reasons why the public version has not been updated, none of them have been able to satisfy my need for greater account- ability and transparency. While the old Defence Capability Plans in their previous iterations were never perfect documents, they did provide a narrative and detail that has been missing for almost five years. I think there is a maturity and understand- ing in Defence Industry that things change; scope, requirement, budget, schedule etc. But they are only able to respond to infor- mation they have access to.
I have yet to find an industry player, prime or SME, that is happy with the level of proj- ect information in policy documents. It re- mains a jigsaw that people have to put to- gether themselves, a task that is much easier in a larger organisation than an SME I would argue. Environmental working groups, in- dustry briefings (both virtual and in person), andtradeshowsareimportantavenuesfor collaboration but they are still funnelled through AusTender, ICN, AWARD portals andotherplatforms.Itcanbehardkeeping track of them all. ADM’s weekly Tender Bul- letin goes some way towards helping mem- bers keep up to date, but companies still need bandwidth to process it all.
Add to the fact that Primes generally get a ‘heads up’ before tenders are released, the government’s focus on SME perfor- mance and support is patchy.
At the time of writing, I understand that the review report of the Centre for Defence Industry Capability has gone to the Minister. It will be noteworthy to see how that body is affected by the reform process as industry is asked to deliver a remarkable array of capabilities over the coming decade. ■
Interestingly, the strategy does away with the two per cent GDP target for the De- fence budget even as spending is forecast to reach that bench- mark next year, for a total of $575 billion over the decade. The Budget next month will make for interest- ing reading for those
“I HAVE YET TO FIND AN INDUSTRY PLAYER, PRIME OR SME, THAT IS HAPPY WITH THE LEVEL OF PROJECT INFORMATION IN POLICY DOCUMENTS.”
of us so inclined. Upon further in- terrogation of the new documents, it blends together the old and new pro- grams with little re- gard for program numbers or names, the mainstay of Defence accountability and tracking for many. This makes it hard to track how programs or projects are pro- gressing within the Integrated Investment
Plan (IIP) framework.
When directly questioned at an ASPI
event about the prospects of the IIP being updated publicly, the Minister for Defence did not give a concrete yes or no.
“I’m not sure how much more transparent we can be than these two documents,” Min- ister Reynolds replied in response to ADM’s question. “I think you’ve got more informa- tion and certainty in terms of the numbers.