The Coalition Government continues to mismanage crucial defence projects with the Auditor-General revealing another nine years of cumulative delays, $1.2 billion in budget blowouts and disturbing capability performance shortfalls during the last financial year alone.
 
Thanks to the Morrison Government’s mismanagement, Defence’s 26 most important projects, worth a total of $64.1 billion, are now cumulatively delayed by more than 57 years after further blowouts in project schedules.
 
As the Australian National Audit Office’s 2018-19 Major Projects Report notes, these schedule delays are affecting when the new equipment will be put into the hands of Australian Defence Force personnel as well as the cost to taxpayers of delivering these projects.
 
The report also shows that cost of the 26 major projects has blown out by a total of $24.4 billion above their initial second pass approved budgets, with the cost overruns increasing by $1.2 billion in 2018-19.
 
Worryingly, the ANAO finds that five major projects now face challenges in delivering their full capabilities – the $16.5 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, the $3.77 billion MRH90 Helicopter, the $1.98 billion Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicle, the $1.44 billion Battlefield Airlifter and the $236.7 million LHD Landing Craft projects.
 
The Joint Strike Fighter project is unlikely to deliver a planned maritime strike capability when it reaches final operational capability while the design of the new Hawkei vehicle does not meet all of Defence’s capability requirements.
 
The report also reveals that the $9.1 billion Air Warfare Destroyer project will be unable to deliver all of its required capabilities by the planned completion date with procurement of the Radar-Electronic Attack system for the new ships now deferred. The report also notes that the AWD sonar capability may be affected by design issues.
 
The report raises serious questions about the delivery of key projects, including budget, capability and schedule performance. The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit should examine these issues through a public inquiry. There is a significant lack of transparency surrounding these projects which is unacceptable.
 
The revolving door of Defence Ministers under the Coalition and the weak leadership shown by Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price is clearly contributing to these project blowouts.
 
This mismanagement has the potential to have a real impact on the ground for the ADF and for Australian taxpayers.
 
The project delays mean our troops are not getting the equipment they need, forcing them to use increasingly outdated weapons, ships and planes that are costing more and more to maintain.
 
The Government’s boasting about defence investment plans can no longer hide its incompetent management of multi-billion dollar projects which are important for Australia’s future defence capabilities.