About 1,650 jobs to go in major shake-up of Defence bureaucracy
About 1,650 job losses and a change to the way Australia's military service chiefs work will form part of the biggest shake-up of Defence in more than two decades.
Defence Minister Kevin Andrews has released the long-awaited First Principles review along with the Government's response to try to improve the efficiency of Defence.
The review, led by former Rio Tinto managing director David Peever, makes 76 recommendations, including re-absorbing the Government agency which purchases military equipment into the Defence department.
"We're looking at a new structure that there will not be DMO (the Defence Materiel Organisation) in the future, there will be a new capability and sustainment group within Defence," he said.
The DMO purchases and maintains military equipment required by the Defence Force and approved by Government.
Loading...Last year it presided over a budget of more than $12 billion.
The review also found about 1,650 fewer public service jobs would be needed.
Mr Andrews confirmed the overhaul would involve job losses but said they would not be that large.
"The net outcome will be less than that; we think about the order of 1,000," Mr Andrews said.
The review also recommended the government go ahead with selling off 17 military bases.
Australia's Defence Chief said he fully supports the recommendations in the report, which found "institutionalised waste", flawed execution and delayed decisions in his department.
Air Chief Marshall Mark Binskin said the report and its recommendations are needed.
"Defence is ready for it. It is tackling the enterprise issues that we all know that we all have in Defence," he said.
"We're ready for it, we've got about 3 months to do the detailed planning before we start that implementation.
"We know that there's challenges there but we've got a team across Defence that are ready to implement this."
Government to adopt all but one of review's recommendations
The Government says Defence will begin implementing the 75 recommendations immediately and most changes are expected to be carried out within two years.
"The biggest issue we found at the highest level was Defence is a federated structure, operates as a loose federation where the parts are not well joined up and therefore not a good fit for the challenging agenda which Defence has before it," said report author Mr Peever.
Peter Jennings from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believes the decision to move the DMO into Defence makes sense.
"We'll have a redesign of the Defence Materiel Organisation, the equipment purchases I think will have a more rational approach to how we take the idea of equipment purchasing from concept through to delivery," Mr Jennings said.
He says the overhaul will involve "a significant thinning of senior numbers" but it will result in more efficiency.
"I think partly what we're talking about here is a cultural change," Mr Jennings said.
"To bring the commercial purchases of equipment more closely into alignment with what the services want as the ultimate final uses of the equipment."
The review also includes new accountability measures and duties for the chiefs of Navy, Army and Air Force.