Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak to the Defence Legislation Amendment (First Principles) Bill 2015. I thank the previous speaker for his contribution. I want to acknowledge the fine work that he is doing as Assistant Minister for Defence and the diligence with which he carries out his role. My interactions with him regarding the military base in my electorate have been very, very favourable.

This particular legislation strives for a better balance between the effective use of resources and effective operational capabilities. They are simply common-sense changes to ensure that we have one of the best militaries in the world and that it remains that way. The amendments come out of the government-commissioned First principles review—creating one Defencein 2014. The review followed a broad consultation process, taking the best facets of community and business best practice and incorporating them into the management of our Defence Force. The focus of the review was on making sure that Defence is fit for purpose, able to respond to future challenges and deliver against outputs with the minimum resources necessary. As the review found, the operation of the Defence Force in the past proved to be very costly and cumbersome and some new processes needed to be put in place to take us forward.

The government released the First principles review—creating one Defenceon 1 April 2015. I want to commend the fine work that was done. The review team, which was expertly chaired by David Peever, comprised Professor Robert Hill, Professor Peter Leahy, Mr Jim McDowell and the former finance minister in the previous Labor government, the Hon. Lindsay Tanner. The government agreed, or agreed in principle, to 75 of the 76 recommendations made in the report. As previously mentioned, we are absolutely committed to having a world-class military to defend our country both at home and abroad.

The review found that there were a proliferation of structures, processes and systems that had layer upon layer of unclear level of accountability. This caused a lot of institutional waste and delayed decisions. There were flawed execution, duplication and overescalation of issues, and low engagement levels amongst employees in many parts of the organisation. The review proposed substantial change across Defence to ensure that it can deliver on future requirements that will be outlined in the government's forthcoming Defence white paper. A key recommendation of the review was to 'establish a strong, strategic centre to strengthen accountability and top level decision making' in the Defence Force.

As part of the focus on the joint force, the review highlighted the need to update legislation to formally acknowledge the key roles played by the Chief of the Defence Force and the Vice Chief of the Defence Force—the VCDF—in the modern Australian Defence Force. The key purpose of the bill is to formalise the authority of the CDF and the VCDF. It will give full command of the Australian Defence Force to the CDF by removing legislative limitations in the Defence Act 1903, recognising the VCDF as the deputy of the CDF and providing for the service chiefs—Chief of Army, Chief of Navy and Chief of Air Force—to be subject to the direction of the CDF. It also looks at strengthening and streamlining the key military leadership roles of the CDF and the VCDF, which will enable improved cohesiveness and much more effectiveness in the Defence command and decision-making aspects of Defence. As the chamber would know, the key to an effectively run organisation as big as our Defence Force is strong communication channels. This is absolutely integral to the bill.

Another recommendation found that, as part of the performance management system, Defence should take steps to create a culture where leadership, professionalism and corporate behaviour are valued and rewarded. This is absolutely vital in our Defence forces. It is absolutely vital that these values remain at the apex of our military, that the best and brightest are elevated to senior positions. I want to thank members of the Defence Force for their contribution to the complex project management course that was started at QUT in the electorate of Brisbane. This course was much anticipated and very well received. It will also ensure that we have some of those brightest graduates going back into Defence and working with that industry group in a very positive way in the future. I want to thank the founders of that particular course, who are a mixture of academic and military people, and place on the record my congratulations to Professor Little at QUT and to Kim Gillis.

Another issue this bill seeks to rectify is the uncertainty in the chain of command, which presents a potential problem of ambiguity and lack of clarity—this has been confirmed by legal advice. The CDF's powers may be interpreted as being subject to the authority of the service chiefs to command their respective services. This uncertainty is compounded by other provisions of the act.

The review also recommended the management of staff resources to deliver the optimal use of funds and maximise efficiency, including abolishing the use of antiquated measures such as the teeth-to-tail ratio and the one-third budget split. This will be a very welcome recommendation.

The bill also facilitates the implementation of an enterprise approach to the delivery of corporate- and military-enabling services to maximise their effectiveness and efficiency. This will be manifested through Defence disposing of all unnecessary estate holdings. The assistant minister spoke earlier about what an enormous task that is. Defence has some of the largest Defence holdings in the country, many of which are surplus to use. It is a very involved process. It is important, when many of those Defence estates come onto the market to be disposed of, that the relevant environmental planning and community consultations take place and that former Defence estates are disposed of in the most efficient way possible in order to return that revenue back to the government. I want to again acknowledge that this is a huge part of the Defence budget. It certainly has changed over the years. This particular review focussed on that and said that there are better ways that we can move along to make this process much more efficient and a lot speedier than occurred in the past. Whatever occurs, it is the best possible outcomes for Defence that are at stake here.

Another recommendation was to examine the System Program Office to determine the most appropriate procurement model and achieve value for money. Again, Defence has many SMEs that contract to it in the procurement and supply chains. It was very interesting to the see the first principles review focusing on many of these procurement practices and recommending the way forward. I am sure many of Defence's SME suppliers will welcome such a recommendation. They are a very valuable and important part of our whole defence industry. I pay tribute to many of these SMEs that work in this area. They are some of the most innovative and dynamic companies in Australia, and we thank them so much for all that they do and for their input into the defence industry aspect of defence.

Clearly, the amendments are embracing best practice management, which is indicative of the government's legislation presented in the House. As the government, the Public Service and indeed the economy continue to adapt and innovate, it is absolutely imperative that Defence comes along with them, as part of this adaptation. Defence has some of the brightest and most innovative people, but in a lot cases it is being let down by the processes. So I acknowledge again the wonderful work that was done by the first principles review. I know that they will continue taking an active role in this area, and that they will be working with the secretary of the department and with Defence in an overview role to ensure that many of these processes will be implemented over the next two years. That has been welcomed by all in Defence. I congratulate the Peever committee. These are fine recommendations. The bill will ensure that the chequered past of the Defence Force's management will now longer be an issue in the future. I commend the bill to the House.

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