Are we getting bang for buck? As our key ally pushes for greater Defence spending what is the cost effectiveness of our current contribution? ⬇️
We’d like to commend to you a white paper authored by Independent Consultant Peter F Robinson that we will add in the comments. Before setting up his own shop Peter was KPMG’s lead partner for Defence and Defence Industry. The white paper asks the pertinent question: ‘Is the Australian Defence Force Match Fit for the prospect of a coming conflict?’.
A couple of highlights that jumped out on the first read:
◾Return on Investment – the comparison between the capability Italy, Japan and even Russia achieve for Defence expenditure versus our own is sobering. The annex comparing Italy to Australia is a must read – We are not getting bang for buck and need to be ruthless in pursuit of greater value.
◾Non Uniform vs Uniform headcounts. The ADF’s largest ‘largest’ headcount by service is actually the external worker / contractor workforce with ~ 35k FTE. The APS is at ~20k FTE – larger than both the Air Force and Navy. While we are struggling to recruit and retain military personnel the APS has had no problem growing rapidly.
◾Empower the Chiefs – Peter’s proposal to invest authority and control in the CDF, VCDF, CJOPS and the Service Chiefs would see a significant change to the Canberra culture of Defence. His analysis is a sobering reminder of how the current state has resulted in shared accountabilities, duplicated roles and responsibilities and a consensus by committee culture.
Peter throws down the challenge to the status quo in this report and brings plenty of quality analysis and considered thought to proposed solutions:
“Defence bureaucracy has been allowed to flourish unchecked for decades and needs a deep, dramatic reset in order to allow an agile, flexible, scalable military capability to be developed and employed by our professional war-fighters. Revolution of the Department is required, not evolution – the Gordian Knot needs to be decisively cut, no matter how vexed the transition that follows.”
A solid contribution to the contest of ideas – much food for thought!
📸 via ASPI and link to the white paper in the comments.