By Duncan Lewis

I am very pleased to announce the release of the Defence Corporate Plan 2012-17. The Corporate Plan is a key strategic management tool for all of Defence and identifies our corporate priorities over the next five years.

The Corporate Plan will help Defence to integrate major activities and relate them to our organisational culture. It will also help us make systematic, timely choices between competing organisational needs.

The Corporate Plan is an enterprise-level plan that will tie together all our current strategic planning, clearly prioritise Defence activities and help drive their implementation – with clear performance benchmarks and accountabilities for delivery. The key priorities and strategic imperatives for Defence will now be captured in one place, along with personal accountabilities for implementation and benchmarks to track progress.

In a period of difficult economic pressures, we need to be absolutely focused on the most important deliverables and achieving them in the most efficient and cost-effective way. I want to emphasise that the Corporate Plan is not a document produced to gather dust on the top shelf. Both the Chief of the Defence Force and I – and the broader senior leadership team – will be using the plan to guide future funding decisions and resource allocations.

Defence has developed a Corporate Plan that is comparable to other large, complex Commonwealth agencies. Importantly, the plan also supports our cultural intent of being ‘trusted to defend, proven to deliver, respectful always’.

On August 22, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, released Phase Two of her Review into the Treatment of Women in the ADF. Phase One – the Review into the Treatment of Women at the Australian Defence Force Academy – was released on November 3 last year. The Review included 21 recommendations which the Government has accepted in principle. The Chief of the Defence Force and I are working to quickly implement the recommendations and ensure they harmonise with the cultural change we have articulated in Pathway to Change: Evolving Defence Culture.

Further information is available at http://www.defence.gov.au/pathwaytochange/index.htm.

I was recently honoured to be the guest speaker at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute annual dinner, held at Old Parliament House in Canberra. My speech, entitled “Talking Dollars and Strategy: The Challenging Link in Defence Planning”, highlighted some of the issues that Defence faces as we consider the new White Paper and make decisions about our future force structure. I also spoke about progress against the five priorities that I set when I commenced as Secretary in September last year. You can find a copy of my speech at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/oscdf/secretary/speech.html.

One of the things I emphasised in my speech was the need for Defence to do business differently, and reduce our overheads. A key area we must reduce is our overseas travel. While some of our non-operational activities, particularly international engagement, require overseas travel, the actual amount of travel being undertaken remains substantially higher than I would expect, particularly given our budgetary circumstances.

The Chief of the Defence Force and I have recently issued a Joint Directive regarding overseas travel which places restrictions around the size of delegations, limits the approval authorities for overseas travel, and emphasises the use of video conferencing or remote electronic means as an alternative. Importantly, proposed visits to NATO countries, the United Kingdom and the United States must be cleared in advance by the Heads of Australian Defence Staff in Brussels, London and Washington. The Chief of the Defence Force and I will be closely monitoring this situation.

In closing, I would like to draw your attention to a new initiative for Canberra called Boundless – The National Children’s Playground. Boundless is a gift from public servants to the ACT as part of its Centenary celebrations in 2013. Boundless will be an all-abilities playground situated in the grounds adjacent to the Carillon. I believe this is a terrific idea that addresses an important need in the Canberra community, allowing children of all abilities to play safely in a state-of-the-art playground. With so many Defence employees located in Canberra, I have committed my support. Further information is available at http://www.boundlesscanberra.org.au.