Overhaul needed if Defence to deliver, says Linda Reynolds

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds says her department needs an overhaul to deliver a $270bn upgrade to military capabilities.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds. Picture: Colin Murty

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has warned her department needs a major overhaul to be able to deliver the government’s $270bn upgrade to the nation’s military capabilities.

Senator Reynolds said delivery of new capabilities had been a “perennial problem” for Defence over the past century, and she had embarked on a reform program to give it “the backbone” to ­respond to the government’s ­requirements.

“We have got the right capability plan, but we don’t have an organisation that is yet adaptable enough to actually deliver,” she told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“We have got a very large ­defence organisation, which is better than it used to be under our force structure plan process.

“But there is a lot of work to be done to continually transform the organisation to keep up with technological change and disruption, but also to make sure we can keep delivering what we need to.”

Part of the task would involve sharpening the way Defence worked with 15,000 private sector companies in its supply chain.

“We have come to this realisation — Defence has, some belatedly I would argue — that Australian industry is far more capable then we had previously given it credit for,” she said.

The government will lift the defence budget from $45bn a year to $75bn a year over the next decade, while increasing the allocation for new capabilities from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

Under the plan, Defence ­needed to procure 400 new capabilities and integrate them into the broader force, Senator Reynolds said.

ASPI defence program director Michael Shoebridge said ­Defence needed to shift focus to deliver on the government’s ­urgent capability requirements, while also managing major long-term procurements such as new submarines and frigates.

“Part of the organisation needs to be future-focused, but it also needs now to become much more seized with urgency, and act to increase it’s deterrent power and provide a platform for diplomacy and Australian engagement in the region,” Mr Shoebridge said.

Defence’s new force structure plan, released last month, ­includes the acquisition of new long range anti-ship missiles with a range of more than 370km, and investments in new space and cyber capabilities.

A strategic update issued at the same time warned Australia must be ready to fight a conventional war at short notice, overturning past assumptions of a 10-year “strategic warning time” before a major attack.

It said more assertive ­behaviour by major powers, ­including Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea and coercive “grey zone” activities, presented immediate challenges to Australia.

Scott Morrison said when he released the plans that the nation needed to prepare for a world that was “poorer, more dangerous, and more disorderly”.