Australia’s defence projects will be overhauled as Defence Minister Richard Marles identified billions of dollars in budget blowouts and major delays. 

Minister Marles promised more oversight would be done on projects moving forward after finding that nearly 50 major defence projects were either behind schedule or over budget. 

While it would be challenging to rein in the project blowouts as the spending significantly strained the budget, the minister told reporters that the federal government would accept the responsibility. 

“I want to be clear on one point – this is not the fault of the Department of Defence, this is not the fault of the Australian defence industry,” he said. 

The minister, who also attributed the troubled defence project pipeline to exchange rates and indexation, added that a culture shift away from political spin and towards better project oversight would be employed. 

“We are really confident that we are putting in place a much better situation led by an activist ministry,” he said. 

“We’re really confident that with a change of culture, where our focus is not on press releases … but on the outcome of projects, that sends a message right from the top.” 

The troubled projects include battlefield air lifters, patrol boats, the battlefield command system, a series of satellite communications projects and the P-8A Poseidon aircraft. 

It was also found that the Hunter class frigates are four years behind schedule and cost $15 billion more than anticipated. 

At least $6.5 billion of project variations outside of the budget have also been identified. 

Opposition leader and former defence minister Peter Dutton hit back at Minister Marles’s statements, attacking Labor for reducing defence spending when the party was last in power.  

“It’s just comical, we put more money into defence than they ever did,” he told reporters in Bundaberg.  

“Labor is trying to create a distraction. They just don’t have a feather to fly with here.” 

To fix the spending issues, the federal government has committed to a higher level of ministerial oversight by setting up independent projects and a portfolio management office within Defence. 

Monthly reports on projects of concern and interest will also be handed to the defence minister directly. 

Meanwhile, the federal government will allocate extra resources to troubled projects to help get them off the ground. 

When asked if the government would scrap the troubled French Taipan army helicopters in favour of the US Black Hawk, Minister Marles said he would not comment before the finalisation of a review underway. 

The federal government has pledged to maintain its commitment to spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence, with expenditure set to increase to more than $80 billion by 2032. 

With AAP

Eliza Sayon

Website | + posts

Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

• Developing an effective data ecosystem
• The journey of building an ecosystem through data
• NZ government strengthens data privacy laws against third parties
• eSafety Commissioner issues legal notice against Twitter