The driving force for the implementation of the Defence Export Strategy is the formation of the Australian Defence Export Office in the Department of Defence. The Australian Defence Export Office will be established in the first quarter of 2018 and consolidate and grow existing export support functions.
The Strategy also recognises the critical role of the Office of Defense Industry Support (ODIS) in developing Australian industry to achieve export success and as the lead for industry advice, assistance and development. The ODIS will have an expanded role under the Strategy.
The Strategy establishes a new Australian Defence Export Advocate to support the Australian Defence Export Office. The Australian Defence Export Advocate will provide enduring high-level advocacy in pursuit of Australian defence exports internationally and undertake domestic stakeholder engagement with industry and state and territory governments to ensure coordination of effort.
To establish a whole-of-government approach, the Australian Defence Export Office will establish a Memorandum of Understanding with Austrade to formalise cooperation between the organisations. Leveraging the respective strengths of each organisation, the Memorandum of Understanding will enhance the export support available to Australian defence industry, including through a number of locally-engaged experts in key markets.
The Strategy provides $20 million in additional annual funding from 2018-19 to support Australia’s defence exports. The Strategy aims to bring together all the levers available to government and industry to provide end-to-end support for defence exports. In addition to establishment of the Australian Defence Export Office and Australian Defence Export Advocate, the key initiatives include:
- Developing a strong defence market intelligence capability and implementing strategic multi-year campaigns for priority markets and capabilities, including expanded trade shows and targeted trade missions, supported by an additional $6.3 million per annum.
- Sustaining and expanding the Global Supply Chain program with an additional $3.2 million per annum to help more Australian small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to access the supply chains of global primes.
- Supporting Australian SMEs to seek new opportunities, including an additional $4.1 million per annum for grants to help build the capability of SMEs to compete internationally.
- Establishing a dedicated mechanism for Export Finance Australia to refer applications for defence export finance worth up to $3.8 billion to be written on the National Interest Account.
- Establishing local industry experts in key markets to provide advice and support for Australian defence exports.
- Establishing a dedicated Defence Export Forum to better coordinate the efforts of the Australian Government, the states and territories, and industry to support export outcomes.