Biggest loser gets buried. No report on Defence projects after $37B blow-out

Major Defense Projects continually spiral out of control, wasting billions of dollars and harming national security. Rather than fixing the problem, Labor instructed the Auditor General not to report on them. former senator Rex Patrick reports.

Australia’s Biggest Waste

Defense currently has a budget of around $60 billion a year, but that figure is expected to rise to around $100 billion by 2034. This is the country’s largest purchasing operation in the long run.

Defense is also the country’s biggest waste of money.

He spent $4 billion not to buy French submarines. It canceled $3.8 billion in the now-shuttered Multi-Role Helicopter program. It canceled the $1.3 billion Sky Guardian attack drone program, having spent $1.3 billion getting nothing.

Billions of dollars were wasted on the Army Battle Management system, Sparta battlefield airlift planes, and the Tiger helicopter program.

In total, this is more than enough money for, for example, 90 days of fuel reserve storage.

In 2024-25, the government had two projects on its own Projects of Concern (train-hit) list and seven projects on its Projects of Concern (near derailment) list.

Important and Interesting Projects (Source: Auditor General)

Even the government is unhappy

But you don’t need to believe MWM due to Defence’s poor record.

In February 2024, Defense Minister Richard Marles appeared on Sky News and said:culture of excellence, ensuring that the acquisition happens as quickly as possible and we are in the process of doing all of this.”

“Governments have talked about this in the past but we really need to make sure we move faster.” he told the show’s audience.

In December 2025, Marles himself initiated an alleged major reform of Defense Procurement, but the truth is that he shuffled the deck chairs.

Marles’ new Defense organization – rearrangement of deck chairs on HMAS Titanic

Despite the turmoil of Defense procurement and the plan to allocate more taxpayer money to Defense to spend on projects, despite increasingly worrying geo-strategic conditions and despite the fact that we have embarked on the most costly and risky Defense program ever (AUKUS), Labor-controlled Joint Public Accounts and Audit Committee orders Auditor General to stop preparing Major Projects Review.

The move comes as control of Defense moves to the newly formed Joint Defense Committee, which will feature only the two major parties and will meet in secret.

The duo’s secret ‘Defense Oversight Committee’. What is fraud?

Nothing to See Here Please!

One of the primary tools of public accountability for the heavily secretive Department of Defense is the Auditor General’s annual Major Project review.

This was made public by the same team that brought us Sport’s Rorts, the Leppington Triangle scandal and the Car Park rorts incident.

The Auditor General has the powers of the Royal Commissioner when it comes to receiving: access to information. He may order an official to provide him with information and documents (including Cabinet presentations).

You can collect evidence and cross-examine authorities and even entering any Government building To get what he needs to do his job of examining government spending and the management of public funds.

While the office of Auditor General falls administratively under the portfolio of the Prime Minister, the Auditor General an independent officer of Parliament It is responsible to the Joint Public Accounts Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Review of Major Projects

The Major Projects review is the most informative publicly available document on Defense performance.

It reports on 20 (or so) Major Projects currently underway. He pulls no punches.

Last year’s report found the difference between the cost of Defense projects when they were submitted for Government approval and the current expected cost across major projects was $37.335 billion. That’s a $37.355 million budget overrun (for those having trouble understanding what a billion dollars means in practice).

It was also revealed that major projects had a schedule slippage of 404 months (this represents a total delay of 33.6 years).

The new ‘do not review’ order to the Auditor General represents a shutdown of any real public oversight of Defence.

Champagne corks will be popping at Defense’s Russell Hill headquarters.

Privacy continues

The Labor Government will be happy too. Defense is an area of ​​high government spending and one that regularly produces bad budget news. He is likely to be in government throughout this period and does not want this thorny area of ​​Government (mis)management to be scrutinized, at least in the next term.

As the amount of public money spent on AUKUS approaches 10 billion (with no deployable capabilities in sight) the Government will be particularly reluctant to produce a 5 to 10 page Project Data Summary Sheet explaining the details of the project; budget, expenditure details, cost overruns, schedule details, delays, project-related risks and errors, etc.

Who gets the Hunter Class Frigate money? (Source: Auditor-General)

If the Annual Major Project Review were to report on AUKUS, the public would easily and clearly see the total money spent on AUKUS in US and UK shipyards and which companies are on track, what the issues that arise are and what the implications are for the rest of the Defense portfolio and Defense Force capabilities.

How might this benefit the Government politically? can’t; The best thing is to get rid of this problem.

Rudd gives his AUKUS speech in Washington, but is the USA marching?

Responsibility, accountability and politics

In December 2019, the seventh year of the Coalition Government, Anthony Albanese spoke at the Chifley Research Center Conference. He put forward a fresh and positive approach to the future of our country.

Albanese wanted whistleblowers to be protected; “expand your protections”…He didn’t.

The Albanians wanted a culture of explanation in Government; “Reform freedom of information laws so they cannot be broken by the government. Current delays, hurdles, costs, and exemptions make it easy for the government to withhold information from the public. This is not true.”

He introduced an FOI Amendment Bill that creates further barriers and expands secrecy.

“People are being attacked for expressing their views” he stated. The Parliament has now passed laws aiming to criminalize some controversial topics.

Albanese calls for National Integrity Commission to be established federal sphere of intelligence to root out corruption. Commission have all the powers, independence and resources of a standing Royal Commission. It implemented an NACC that, unlike Royal Commissions, could not easily hold public hearings.

hypocrisy

Albanse was determined on this matter. “You do not govern by taking into account national interests under the cover of secrecy.“. One of the biggest goals for the future Government to be formed under his leadership is to restore public responsibility”.

We now see it eliminating liability on our largest area of ​​contract spend.

A year after his speech at the Chifley Research Centre, Albanese, fed up with the Morrison Government, stood up in the House of Representatives and hurled criticism at the Morrison government: “There is no responsibility. There is no responsibility. It’s all politics”.

Albanese’s counter-democracy moves since coming to power cannot be ignored; these include canceling the Auditor General’s review of Major Defense Projects.

Albanese repeated the management arrangements he once allegedly disdained.

There is no responsibility. There is no responsibility.

This is all politics.

Legislative harakiri. A rare win for transparency as FOI bill dies

Rex Patrick is a former South Australian Senator and formerly a submariner in the armed forces. Known as an anti-corruption and transparency warrior, Rex is also known as “Transparency Warrior“