Federal Government releases Australian Defence Force white paper

THE ongoing maintenance cost of Australia’s new fleet of 12 submarines could blow out to $150 billion, the Turnbull government’s defence white paper has revealed.

Defence minister Marise Payne. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

THE cost of Australia’s new fleet of submarines could blow out to $150 billion after the defence white paper confirmed the price tag of the watercrafts.

The Federal Government has today unveiled the details of its full long-awaited white paper, which outlines $195 billion will be spent over the next decade beefing up the capability of Australia’s armed forces in a bid to protect the nation from “complex security challenges” and increased uncertainty.

But the cost of the 12 new submarines will be at least $56 billion just to build and buy them to replace the Collins class submarines.

The ongoing cost over the lifetime of the 12 submarines could be as much $100 billion, putting the total cost at $150 billion. Defence officials and industry experts consistently say acquisition is only one third of the cost.

A competitive process is under way to choose whether Japan, Germany or France will be involved in building the submarines, with the winner set to be announced this year.

In its white paper, the Turnbull Government has vowed to increase defence spending to two per cent of GDP by 2020-21, years sooner than the Coalition’s 2013 election promise.

This includes an extra $29.9 billion in spending over the next decade.

According to the plan $195 billion will be spent growing the capability of our armed forces, including building 12 new submarines, nine frigates, 12 offshore patrol vessels, and 15 aircraft.

Strike and air combat abilities will be enhanced to deliver “more potent” air strikes.

And cyber capabilities including electronic warfare and surveillance will be boosted in the face of “growing” cyber security threats, which the document said poses “a real and present risk to the Australian Defence Force’s warfighting capability, and our national security and economic prosperity”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

Other capability increases include expanding bases around the country, including several Royal Australian Air Force bases, the HMAS Stirling and Fleet Base East (Garden Island), and the Woomera training and testing range in SA.

Defence information and communications technology infrastructure will be improved, through $5 billion of additional funding.

The ADF’s permanent workforce will also be increased to about 62,400 by 2025-26 in what is described as the “largest single rebalance of the defence workforce in a generation”.

As well as cyber security, the white paper outlines five other “drivers” behind the spending boost — which will see the defence budget grown from $32.4 billion in 2016-17 to $58.7 billion in 2025-26, including:

— Australia’s relationship with China and the US

— Threats posed by Islamic State and other terrorist groups

— Increasing military modernisation in Asia

The report said the Indo-Pacific region was experiencing “unprecedented transformation”.

“In the next 20 years, half of the world’s submarines and at least half of the world’s advanced combat aircraft will be operating in our region,” it said.

Thousands more troops will be recruited into the Australian Defence Force. Picture: Brenton Kwaterski

The report said Australia would “continue to be threatened by terrorism at home and abroad”.

“The spread of extremism and violence will be worsened by foreign terrorist fighters returning from conflicts to their countries of origin, including Australia and other countries in our region, and terrorist attacks by individuals inspired and radicalised by extremist messages,” it said.

“Over the next 20 years, it can be expected that terrorism will continue to evolve in ways that threaten Australia’s interests.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the white paper would help Australia “achieve a strong and sustainable defence capability.”

“It is a program that ensures that much more of the development of our defence technologies is done here in Australia,” he said.

“Our defence industry already leads in innovation, with strong, spill over benefits into the wider economy.

“We want to and we will see more of this.”

Defence minister Marise Payne. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

He said ongoing turbulence in the Middle East and Asia was a continued threat.

“The proliferation of terrorist threat sources, some of them home grown, many of them enlisted via the internet, will require sustained effort both within Australia and elsewhere to limit the freedom of terrorist groups to operate and as we seek to undermine their narrative of hate,” he said.

“We will continue to be a constructive and influential player in the regional strategic environment and beyond.

“We need to have the capacity to deter and defeat threats to Australia.”

Asked where the government would find the money to fund the plan, Mr Turnbull said the spending flowed for “decades out in the future”.

“So this is a fully costed plan, but there is not, that’s not the end of the work,” he said.

“Now it has to be implemented and it has to be implemented with the most rigorous financial discipline.”

Defence Minister Marise Payne said in future defence would play a more central role in “shaping regional affairs”.

“As an open trade-based economy, Australia relies on a stable and secure region,” she said.

“Our security and prosperity depends on a stable Indo-Pacific region and a rules-based global order in which power is not misused and tensions can be managed through negotiations based on international law.

“To achieve this, our Defence Force must continue to have a leadership role in our immediate region, comprising Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Pacific Island countries.

“We must strengthen our defence engagement with regional countries to deal with the threat of terrorism and address shared security concerns.

PM Malcolm Turnbull speaks at the release of the 2016 Defence White Paper at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. Picture: Ray Strange.

“And we must continue to work with the United States and international and regional partners to make that positive contribution beyond the Indo-Pacific as Australia is currently doing in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.”

Senator Payne described the ADF’s current ICT systems as “retro”.

“Well, there is an upgrade process under way, much of Defence’s work force including me are using computers that run Windows XP,” she said.

“There are people in the room today who had not started school when that was first released.

“This does inhibit productivity.”

The defence blueprint had been delayed by the Liberal leadership spill in September.

Opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy accused the government of bringing forward the release of the policy by a day to garner positive media attention.

While expressing support for the white paper, Senator Conroy said it had been a long time coming.

Shadow Minister for Defence Stephen Conroy. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

“Based on our initial review and in the spirit of bipartisanship, we are broadly supportive of the defence white paper,” he said.

“We welcome its strong support for our alliance with the US as the foundation of our national security and defence arrangements.

“We also welcome its focus on increased engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, building on the pioneering work of Labor’s defence white papers in 2009 and 2013.

“We also support in principle the Government’s decision to deliver on its promise of raising Defence funding to 2 per cent of GDP, although we do intend to examine that in detail, and we also note that one of the reasons they have been able to do this is they’ve actually shrunk the economy.”