Troubled defence projects will be given extra funding and staff as the new Labor government blasts mismanagement of military procurement.
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Defence Minister Richard Marles is outlining six measures after flagging 18 projects with a budget of around $70 billion are running over budget by at least $6.5 billion, and 28 major projects which cumulatively are running more than 97 years late.
The new project management directives will include establishing an independent projects and portfolio management office - something abandoned previously under Defence's 2015 First Principles Review.
Several measures will provide additional ministerial oversight of troubled projects including increasing the frequency of reporting from quarterly to monthly and regular summits with ministers on containing further blow-outs, including providing troubled projects with additional resources and skills.
Mr Marles said the government needed to be more responsible with how it spent those resources amid serious pressures on the economy.
"The former coalition government's investment in defence saw key defence projects blow out in both cost and time, money being flushed down the toilet and all the while they regaled in how much they were spending on defence," Mr Marles said.
"It's not as though we can go onto the battlefield and overwhelm our adversary by running up to them and waving a copy of the budget papers in their face."
In budget warnings last week, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers flagged escalating spending pressures in health, aged care, NDIS, debt serving and defence. He said Labor was commited to defence spending while insisting procurement projects must be better managed.
"You only need to look around the world to appreciate that, on both fronts - economically and geopolitically - we live in uncertain and unpredictable times, making it even more critical that defence projects deliver value for money," Mr Chalmers said.
"Our investments in defence and our steps to improve project management are a down payment on the stability of our region, and the security and safety of Australians," Mr Chalmers said.
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Pat Conroy, who is responsible for the project deliver arm of the defence portfolio as Minister for Defence Industry, criticised the investment backflips and poor decisions of the previous government, "from Battlefield Airlifters which can't fly into battlefields to helicopters which can't shoot their weapons".
This legacy meant ADF personnel were not getting the equipment they needed and risked gaps in Australia's military capability, he said.
Funding set aside for the Defence Integrated Investment Program for the next 10 years was secure, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament in August, but avoided giving assurance that recent and not-yet-announced procurement decisions of the previous government would be honoured.
Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
