Page 49 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SENATE ESTIMATES 49
LEFT: The Hunter class frigate program is delayed.
paraphrased it and sent an email to other officers in the department.”
Jones: “The email that was sent did not come from my area. It was someone summarising the advice that had been provided to the senior leadership.”
Senator Wong: “Someone summarising advice provided to the senior leadership by the Minister’s office.”
Jones: “Correct.”
Make of that what you will.
(Author: An official source later told ADM that work was
proceeding as normal on processing media requests and in- quiries. However, many requests continue to be either de- clined or ignored).
RED CARPETS AND SUBMARINES
Moving on, some eyebrows were obviously raised when red carpet was included in an arrival ceremony for Prime Min- ister Scott Morrison at an undisclosed RAAF base.
Rejecting suggestions this had been requested by the Prime Minister’s office, Air Force chief Mel Hupfeld attrib- uted the carpet to “protocol creep” at the base.
While appropriate stair guards could be used to greet VIP visitors “in working across the Defence enterprise now for ceremonial occasions, my intent is to only use red carpet, as a key example here, for regal, vice regal or (foreign) head of state occasions,” he told the committee.
On a separate occasion, arranging for the Top Gun soundtrack to greet the Prime Minister as he entered a han- gar at RAAF Williamtown had been organised by industry for an industry event, Air Marshal Hupfeld added.
Considerable time was spent not only on Future Subma- rine progress – as would be expected – but also on whether Commodore Tim Brown, Director-General of Submarine Capability, whose presence at the hearing had been re- quested by Senator Wong and independent senator Rex Patrick, was sufficiently senior to attend.
Referring to what he described as a long-standing con- vention that Defence was represented at Senate Estimates by Band 2 officials, two-star officers and above, Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty acknowledged he had informed the Defence Minister’s office in advance that it was not usual practice for one-star officers to attend the hearings.
This, he confirmed, was in relation to a media article stating that CDRE Brown might be asked to appear.
Summarising a lengthy exchange from her perspec- tive, Senator Wong commented that on the basis of the