It’s becoming something of an annual tradition that I get asked along to the Australian Defence Magazine (ADM) conference and get to be the token economic rationalist on Day 2. At an industry-focused conference, that’s …
Debate: "Policy, guns and money"
It’s Australia’s biggest current defence project and a multi-billion dollar headache for Defence Minister David Johnston. The Abbott Government is expected to commission soon a broad scale external review of the $8 billion air warfare …
On the 22nd of October last year, the Abbott government announced a National Commission of Audit to ‘to review and report on the performance, functions and roles of the Commonwealth government’. Headed by the chairman …
I know that my friend Mark Thomson was being somewhat tongue in cheek when sledging defence industry, but his put-downs (and defence of DMO) can’t go without a response. There’s a lot in his piece …
According to the Australian Industry Group (AIG), the headcount at the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) has grown three-fold over the past decade from 2,500 people to 7,500. Armed with this remarkable statistic, in their submission …
Over the next couple of days, Australian and French think tank, industry and government officials will participate in the ASPI Australia–France Defence and Industry Dialogue. Peter Jennings will be along later to talk about some …
Just before Christmas, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) put out an interesting report Process over platforms: a paradigm shift in acquisition through advanced manufacturing (PDF) by Aaron Martin and (expat Australian) Ben …
I noted with interest Kym Bergmann’s question in the context of defence industry policy ‘why is “offsets” such a dirty word here’? The answer is actually straightforward: Australia tried offsets—and the results were hardly encouraging. …
Yesterday saw the launch of the ANAO’s 2012–13 Major Projects Report, which takes an auditor’s eye view of the biggest and most complex defence projects. This year it analyses 29 projects—more than previous, and making …
I read with interest the contribution of my colleague Patrick Walters regarding the end of domestic car manufacturing and its implications for Australian defence industry. My point is that if we had a healthy defence …
Benjamin Schreer’s decoding of the Defence Minister’s speech at ASPI’s National Security Dinner smokes any number of rabbits out of their burrows. Perhaps the most enticing of these rodents is the question of what the …
The title of this post sounds outrageous. How can there be any shortcomings of the next Defence White Paper (DWP) when it’s yet to be written? But the next DWP won’t emerge from thin air—it’ll …