David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, upon notice, on 21 March 2011:

With reference to the Strategic Reform Program:

For the period 1 July to 31 December 2010:

(a) where specifically have the provisional savings of the forecasted $529 million have been made;

(b) can a detailed explanation be provided of where these savings have been realised; and

(c) what one-off savings been made.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

Cost reductions under the Strategic Reform Program (SRP) are based on a reduction of annual budgets. The rate and timing of the achievement of cost reductions over the reporting cycle varies from stream to stream depending on the initiatives they are measuring. Providing information on their achievement on a six month basis does not give a meaningful picture of stream performance. However, SRP governance closely monitors stream activities to ensure that planned activities remain on schedule.

The $1016 million of cost reductions targeted under the SRP in financial year 2010-11 will be achieved through initiatives under seven SRP streams, and distributed as follows: Smart Sustainment—$288 million; Non-equipment Procurement—$177 million; Workforce and Shared Services—$171 million; Information and Communication Technologies—$128 million; Reserves—$5 million; Logistics—$6 million; and Other Cost Reductions—$241 million.

& (c) SRP savings are tracked, reported and managed on a stream-by-stream basis. They are not broken up by sub-categories of productivity, one-offs or other descriptors. The annual budgets for activities targeted through streams have been reduced by amounts that reflect cost reductions agreed by Government.

Defence will publish the stream cost reductions achieved for the full financial year in the Defence Annual Report 2010-211 which is expected to be released in late 2011.