As readers are aware by now, government has managed to make good on its two per cent of GDP pledge with this year locking in a 2.1 per cent spending level for Defence from this week’s Budget. This is the bare minimum if the ambitious plans outlined in the 2016 Defence White Paper and 2020 Force Structure Review and Defence Strategic Update are to be delivered.
Given that it takes about a decade for such plans to be delivered (at least historically), the confirmation that the decade-long strategic warning time is no longer in place makes planning and spending even more relevant. Getting $270 billion out the door is a feat in itself.
Minister Price said the Government has kept the wheels of defence industry turning over the past year by accelerating the payment of $26.9 billion in invoices to defence companies, keeping Australians in jobs and businesses going from 2021 into the future....MORE
