Page 28 - Australian Defence Magazine Dec-Jan 2021

28 DEFENCE BUSINESS NADS
DECEMBER 2020 – JANUARY 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
NORTHERN AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE SUMMIT GOES VIRTUAL
On October 28, for the first time in its nine year history, the ADM Northern Australia Defence Summit went virtual.
EWEN LEVICK | SYDNEY
THIS has been the story of the year for events across every sector. Whilst the ADM team is keen to return to a face- to-face format, the online event ran smoothly as speakers from both Defence and industry caught up on the state of play in northern Australia.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner, now a familiar face at this event, opened proceedings with an overview of Dar- win’s strategic importance. It is set to become the transit point for major energy cables linking enormous solar farms in the Outback to cities in southeast Asia, and remains the ADF’s gateway to southeast Asia.
“As attention turns to the north, the Territory is taking our place as an exemplar of national resilience,” Chief Min- ister Gunner said. “You can’t live in Darwin without being aware of strategic risk and opportunity.”
Chief Minister Gunner was followed by Minister for De- fence Industry Melissa Price, whose massive electorate of Durack (roughly the size of Mexico) covers Australia’s en- tire northwest coastline.
Minister Price encouraged industry attendees to maxi- mise opportunities coming from the govern-
ment’s investments in northern Australia. At
the summit, Minister Price also foreshad-
“We are investing over $360 million in the NT alone this year, more than a 50 per cent increase from last year,” COL Rouwhorst said. “This is set to increase further, with $665 million forecast to be spent each year for the next three years.”
USMC ROTATIONS
US Marine Corps rotations into Australia are also ramping up despite the difficulties of the pandemic. The strategic rationale remains the same: Darwin is far enough from for-
DEFENCE
CREDIT
owed that the announcement of the manag- ing contractor for the $800 million Green- vale training area, which will be built as part of the Australia-Singapore Military Training Initiative (ASMTI), was ‘imminent’.
In the weeks since, that contractor was re- vealed to be CPB Contractors. The develop- ment phase, worth $23.5 million, will take place before the $800 million contract be- gins with construction in mid-2022.
“THE INDUSTRY WORKFORCE IS FAR BIGGER THAN OUR OWN INTERNAL WORKFORCE 8,500 PEOPLE COMING ON BASES EVERYDAY.”
ward operating areas in Asia to be strategi- cally ‘safer’ than Guam, but close enough for amphibious forces to deploy quickly through- out the region.
Dr Robert McGregor, Assistant Secretary Major Powers in Defence’s International Policy Division, revealed that this year’s AUSMIN summit included discussions on expanding the rotation further.
“AUSMIN resulted in both countries agree- ing to improve cooperation in force posture and re-established a bilateral force posture working group,” McGregor said. “The poten-
At its peak, the 25-year initiative will see 14,000 Singapor- ean soldiers training in Queensland for up to 18 weeks a year. According to Minister Price, CPB has committed to secur- ing 90 per cent of work from the immediate region around Greenvale and four per cent of both the contracted price
and the full-time workforce from Indigenous enterprises. Colonel Leonard Rouwhorst, Director North of Capital Facilities & Infrastructure for Defence’s Estate and Infra-
structure Group (E&IG), then took the virtual stage.
tial to expand the Marine rotations to include regional al- lies was also discussed.”
Under the US Force Posture Initiative, Canberra and Washington are set to invest $2 billion across six sites in the Territory, including RAAF Darwin and Tindal, Robertson Barracks, Robertson Barracks Close Training Area, Mount Bundey Training Area, Kangaroo Flats and the Bradshaw Field Training Area.
Steve Grzeskowiak, Deputy Secretary of E&IG and an-