Overview
- A government review showed costs on a sample of complex Defence projects rose about 38 percent, equal to roughly A$29 billion in extra spending before contracts were signed.
- The Defence Delivery Group began operating on July 1 as the first step to consolidate acquisition teams and speed decisions on major projects.
- Ministers will abolish the long-standing Defence Investment Committee and create a standalone Defence Delivery Agency to give independent delivery advice from July 2027, with senior recruitment already under way.
- The Reform Task Force found Defence’s costing and project-delivery capacity has atrophied, describing it as fragmented, under-resourced and overly reliant on outside contractors, which it says drove poor early-stage estimates and costly changes later.
- The package ties institutional change to industrial policy by promising an overhaul of the roughly A$4.3–4.36 billion Defence Export Facility and linking reforms to a planned A$53 billion boost in defence spending, which could speed domestic shipbuilding and missile and drone programs but creates a multi-year transition with implementation risks.