At least $9 billion of taxpayers' money will be wasted by Australia's sprawling Defence Department in the next four years because of a lack of technical know-how, according to unions.
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A "skills crisis" in the ADF and Defence Department is eroding the nation's ability to defend itself and risking the lives of sailors, soldiers and Air Force personnel, according to the technical union Professionals Australia.
The warnings were made at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday morning as PA, backed by the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, launched a campaign to pressure the Abbott government to get serious again about technical military expertise.
The Defence Department did not respond before deadline on Tuesday to requests for comment.
Professionals Australia chief executive Chris Walton told the launch that "intellectual capital" had been run down to dangerous levels across the Defence public service workforce which is still undergoing staff cuts in an effort to save money.
Mr Walton said the findings of the 2011 Rizzo Review, commissioned after the warship HMAS Kanimbla caught fire and broke down in Sydney Harbour and was subsequently retired, had not been heeded.
"Almost five years on, and science and engineering capability has been further eroded by an obsession with making short-term savings by untargeted staff cuts, rather than investing in the fundamental link between our defence capacity and the technical integrity that is needed to underpin it," Mr Walton told the campaign launch.
"This comes at a longer-term cost to the budget and puts both national security and lives at risk."
The $9 billion figure is based on estimates by industry group Consult Australia that $45 billion of planned Defence purchasing in the next four years will be hit by 20 per cent cost overruns due to shortcomings in technical expertise.
PA says the wasted money could pay for 70 schools, four hospitals, the first stage of the Sydney's Westconnex road project of the NSW capital's light rail build.The unions want the government to commit to a six-point plan to make Defence technical and engineering skills a priority again and put in place measures to develop its future workforce.
The push is backed by the opposition with Labor's Assistant Defence spokesman Dave Feeney calling for more investment in tech expertise.
"A key risk is the loss of Defence knowledge and experience within this workforce," Mr Feeney said.
"In an age of technological development it is still the people – their knowledge and what they create – that shapes the development, operation and future of our defence forces.
"It is these people that bring a critical capability to our Defence Forces.
"We need to invest in this critical capability of our ADF."
