Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the short time that I have to speak, I rise to speak in strong support of this bill, the Defence Capability Assurance and Oversight Bill 2024, and I commend my colleague and friend Senator David Fawcett for his initiative on this matter. There is no-one, I think, in Australia that has more passion for test and evaluation and is more knowledgeable on the military requirements for this.

The bottom line is that the ADF, after 20 years, have still failed to implement their test and evaluation policies. For those who are not familiar with the expression T&E, it is a structured process for obtaining objective information on both the risk and the quality of the materiel, the equipment and the armaments that our Defence Force use. In plain English, it means ensuring that the complex and dangerous equipment that our ADF personnel use are as safe as we can make them for our personnel on operations, on deployments and also in training.

As formerly both the Minister for Defence and Army adjutant general with responsibility for capability assurance processes, I know that there is nothing more important than getting this right. I also know that the current system is chronically underfunded, it is often performed in a perfunctory way and, we heard in the inquiry, staff often pulled their punches for fear that the answers they got might impact on the schedule and perhaps the cost.

The bill creates an independent statutory body responsible for these processes, the details of which are in the bill. This approach of having risk assessment conducted independently, I think, is a very sound one, and it is an approach that our AUKUS allies have adopted. In particular, in the United States this process and having this independent assurance agency have actually made capability decisions faster, more reliable and more secure, and it is for these reasons I support this bill.