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Government Trims $1 Billion from the Tip of the Spear |
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Monday, 09 February 2009 |
 Hundreds of defence jobs will be lost or relocated under efficiency plans aimed at saving up to $1 billion a year on the "sharp end" of the military.
A Budget review identified savings that will be part of the Government's Defence White Paper in April.
The document, which will focus on China as the key strategic threat in the decades ahead, was last week sent back to the Defence Department by the Government to be rewritten in the light of the global financial meltdown.
But according to Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, job cuts will form a key plank of the savings plan.
"As a consequence of the White Paper some readjustment in job locations will be necessary," Mr Fitzgibbon said.
"There will be some tough decisions to make.
However this is the price we need to pay to ensure that Defence runs as
an effective and efficient organisation and to ensure that we can free
up money to reinvest into front-line priorities."
Jobs will be
lost in regional centres. In Wodonga 40 will go in 2014, although that
will be offset by new investment in warehouses and maintenance
facilities.
Other savings measures will include consolidating the $62 billion defence property portfolio.
Defence
owns more than 400 properties including many on prime real estate such
as Garden Island, both HMAS Watson and HMAS Penguin on Sydney Harbour
and HMAS Cerberus in Melbourne.
More cuts are likely in high-cost areas such as fighter jets, vehicles, information technology, procurement and travel.
In
his detailed annual budget brief, defence spending expert Mark Thomson
from the government-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute
identified possible extra savings of $787 million including $417
million in personnel and $370 million in supplier costs.
Mr Thomson noted that the number of generals and senior managers had expanded dramatically in recent years.
In World War One, 68 generals commanded 300,000 troops - now 171 star-ranked officers oversee just 52,000.
Supplier expenses for the services have grown up to 11 per cent a year despite tiny jumps in force numbers.
Insiders
said the White Paper will include cuts to approved programs across all
three services and will shelve or defer several major "wish list"
projects, including the $16 billion Joint Strike Fighter program
(trimmed from 100 aircraft to 75 or less, saving $4 billion) and
unapproved projects such as the navy's fourth $1.5 billion air warfare
destroyer and new naval helicopters ($1 billion). |
