The government’s Defence White Paper released today may be destined for a short shelf life. Having been brought forward 12 months, it has already been dismissed by the opposition, which insists it will commission its own White Paper once in government. This dismissal has been accompanied by much complaint about Labor’s cuts to defence spending, and a promise to lift it again when “budgetary circumstances” permit.

As it turns out, that’s the government’s view as well, as it today committed to lifting defence spending to 2% of GDP when the budget allows it. Which, of course, isn’t a commitment at all.

While Australians instinctively respect the sacrifices of our soldiers, sailors and air force personnel, even when we don’t support the conflicts they are pitched into, defence procurement in Australia is widely seen as problematic. This is partly because defence procurement must serve the interests both of defence and national security, and industry policy — just as it does in every other developed country.

For that reason, our procurement budget is divided between Australian-owned defence companies, the local subsidiaries of foreign defence companies, and foreign (usually US) defence contractors. Despite repeated efforts to improve procurement contracting processes, there remain serious concerns about our capacity to achieve major acquisitions on-time and on-budget, even as we deal with the legacy of botched procurement processes of the past, such as the Collins class submarines.

A reflexive insistence that Defence should receive more funding when all other areas of the budget are under intense scrutiny won’t increase the likelihood that we improve our defence procurement record. Taxpayers should be able to have more confidence that we won’t keep repeating the major procurement errors of the past before they are called on to contribute more in this area.

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Our very own First Dog on the Moon has decided to record oral versions of some his cartoons, so that people with a visual impairment can dissolve into giggles as much as the rest of us. You can listen in to the first of his audioseries here — his first attempt is yesterday’s cartoon on how to fund the NDIS. Happy listening!