Budget lays firm foundation

The 2004 Federal Budget has given major cash injection to the Australian Defence Force that should provide a solid foundation for future years, writes LEUT Aaron Matzkows

 

Defence’s share of the Budget is part of a longer-than-usual-term plan to keep developing a small highlycapable force, superbly trained and equipped with the best platforms on the sea, land and air.

Recruiting the right servicemen and women and their retention is a major theme in what the Chief of the Defence Force, GEN Peter Cosgrove, described as “a major boost to the quality of life aspects of our service”.

GEN Cosgrove was delighted with the outcome.

“It provides a tremendous boost to the programs we have in place,” he said “It confirms the force modernisation we were aiming for through, first of all, the White Paper in 2000 and, secondly, the Strategic Review of 2003.

“In each of those we looked for some significant improvements in the way we do business and the way we resource our business.”

Deputy Secretary, Strategy, Mr Shane Carmody, said the 2004-05 Budget would help the Strategy Group, and the entire Defence organisation, deliver on major priorities, especially in the areas of regional stability, counter proliferation and the war on terrorism.

“An important focus of our program of international engagement is stability in the region. Additional funding provided in the Budget for the East Timor Defence Force, for Defence Force reform in Papua New Guinea and for the Pacific Patrol Boat project are all important enhancements to that program,” he said.

“I also welcome the additional funding for regional counter-terrorism co-operation in this regard.

“I believe the capability enhancements provided for in the Budget, especially those to special forces, incident response, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, will enable us to make a more effective contribution to the global counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism efforts.”

It is, no doubt, the volatile international situation and a recognition by government that parts of the ADF were showing a few signs of wear that persuaded the Government to be a little more generous than we have come to expect.

Chief Finance Officer, Mr Lloyd Bennett, explained how the leadership managed to obtain a good percentage of the money they sought.

It is a very different world from the one we lived in 10 years ago, the quietly- spoken top public servant said.

“I think part of the problem is the world’s got a lot more complex in a whole lot of different dimensions,” he said.

“One of those dimensions is certainly finance but equally, the strategic situation we find ourselves in.

“Because of the complexity, it requires more analysis and governance, etc, to understand where we need the money, where we’re spending the money, reporting back to people who are giving us such huge amounts of money.

“Given all of that, we’ve clearly lifted our game. We’ve improved the way we do it but clearly we’ve got a long way to go.

We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Defence also was looking to secure the future, he said. “I think these days the Defence Financial Management Plan, which is the 10-year view, is now thoroughly, more deeply, embraced … if that’s possible.

“Despite the big increases in Budget 04, Australia’s Defence spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product remains at about 1.84 per cent.”

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