Page 114 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec-Jan 2021

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FROM THE SOURCE MELISSA PRICE
DECEMBER 2020 – JANUARY 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 113
But, you know, we’ll continue to drive this level of en- gagement with industry to make sure they are updated about the work we’re doing but also to hear their concerns and issues that we can help accordingly.
The goodwill that is being generated does help us to solve problems quickly but, as I’ve said, we haven’t solved all of the problems yet and I continue to lift up stones and try and identify how we can remove that tension and I think many of the major contractors in our Defence Industry ecosys- tem have identified through COVID the value of Australian SMEs. So this, I would say, has been a positive for Austra- lian Defence Industry.
ADM: The Major Services Providers (MSP) framework has delivered value for money but is struggling in terms of outcomes and making sure the right people are placed where they have the most benefit; is there scope for this approach to be fine-tuned?
PRICE: This will be a focus of mine going into 2021, making sure that we have a fit-for-purpose system in place with re- spect to how Defence contracts with the MSPs and to ensure we are getting the right outcomes. I believe there is certainly room for this scope to be finetuned and I expect this will be covered as part of our review into Defence procurement and ASDEFCON. So I look for-
especially to regional Australian businesses and the veteran owned businesses across all of Defence, including in the CIOG and the E&I Group domains.
ADM: COVID-19 has changed the way in which Defence functions in a number of ways. Which of these changes will become permanent?
PRICE: More broadly speaking, we will continue to provide more and more support to Defence Industry, but as to the extent of that support, it’s too soon to tell because we don’t know what the world will look like and we can only really focus on the present and the conditions that we are experi- encing now. And from my perspective, this is why it’s even more important to focus on increasing AIC. We need to reduce reliance on international supply chains and the re- sultant shock that we’ve experienced and we can see that the situation in Europe and in the US is really at a critical stage. The COVID case numbers are increasing (Editor’s note: at the time of writing) and we don’t know what the cost could be.
Defence Industry has displayed tremendous leadership and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and since late March I’ve been, as I said, hosting regular calls with defence primes and SMEs and various industry associations, etc. These calls began on a weekly basis and are now conducted
ward to receiving and reviewing the feedback from industry with respect to Defence service providers and how we can finetune the scope.
“OVER THE PAST NEARLY 18 MONTHS I’VE MADE IT NO SECRET THAT MY PRIORITY HAS BEEN TO ENSURE WE’RE BACKING OUR SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED BUSINESSES IN OURDEFENCEINDUSTRY.”
every fortnight and it’s during these calls that I’m able to get that regular direct feed- back from industry as to how they’re coping with the impact of COVID. These calls have been invaluable, not only for me but for De- fence, as it has enabled us to provide quick solutions and answers to industry’s problems and I think that’s especially so when we were dealing with issues relating to the interstate border closures.
It has also been through this regular communication that I’ve been kept in- formed by industry about how well they are mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 and with the support that’s been provided
Off the top of my head, the following are a
couple of issues that have been raised with me
and one of them is just ensuring that there is
consistency with the Commonwealth procure-
ment rules. Now that we have changed the
guidelines, the issue relating to whether there’s
balance between the larger service providers
and the smaller service providers, and also the geographical spread as well. So there’s a lot to
unpack there but I’m quite sure that we will
end up with a much better fit-for-purpose system with re- spect to that type of procurement.
to industry through the stimulus of paying invoices quickly, some within 48 hours, we’ve been able to keep businesses alive and provide much needed cash flow. And we know that this has helped considerably.
I truly believe that once we get to the other side of this pandemic, the resilience of our Defence Industry will be a true success story to be celebrated. I don’t think there’s any other industry in Australia that has handled COVID-19 as well as Defence Industry has.
ADM: Government approvals of programs has dropped considerably over the past two years; how is the current list of programs going to stay on schedule at this rate? PRICE: This is really a question for Minister Reynolds as the responsible minister. Look, there’s no doubt that we have an incredibly ambitious plan and we will all be working very hard to deliver the schedule that has been set out in the Force Structure Plan which was released in July last year. From my perspective as the Minister for Defence Industry, I work
ADM: Can you give us an update as to how the Centre for Defence Industry Capability Centre (CDIC) restructure is progressing?
PRICE: The CDIC restructure has been progressing well. Of course the restructure can’t happen overnight and we need to get this right and at the same time ensure that the CDIC continues to provide support to industry during the transition. We remain on track to deliver the CDIC recom- mendations by the end of quarter one next year, which is not that far away.
Most of the CDIC functions now reside within CASG. This is going to give CDIC greater alignment with our ca- pability acquisition and sustainment programs and I would say a stronger link with broader industry and CASG.
As the CDIC review has highlighted, we will be looking at how we can provide more tailored and enhanced support,