Albanese Government push to hide embarrassing defence project failures overturned

A contentious move to scrap public scrutiny of massive defence projects looks set to be overturned a fortnight after a Labor led committee moved to end long-standing annual updates on military procurement from the Auditor General.

Last month the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit quietly agreed to end the production of the “Major Projects Report”, which has been prepared by Defence and the Australian National Audit Office at Parliament’s request since 2008.

Instead, the committee said it would “transition to a process where it examines in greater detail the Auditor-General’s performance audits in the Defence portfolio”, a move described as “an absolute slap in the face for Australian taxpayers”.

Now the Senate has passed a Greens-led motion requesting “the Auditor-General to urgently reinstate the Australian National Audit Office’s annual major projects report in order to continue reviewing the Department of Defence’s major equipment acquisition projects”.

“This is a win for transparency. These previous audits have found massive blowouts in scheduling and costs, with a collective 35 years of delay and $40 billion of cost blowouts, across just 21 projects,” Greens Senator David Shoebridge said.

“This is why the Albanese Government has tried to stop these reports, because they show staggering waste. The Albanese Government has overseen a staggering increase in Defence secrecy.”

“Meanwhile they squander billions in wasteful, overpriced and under-performing procurement deals. Labor’s response is not to hold Defence leadership to account but to hide it from the public. This vote pushes back on that.”

The Nightly has been told the move to scrap the reports caught some members of the Albanese government by surprise, particularly Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy who has long supported ANAO scrutiny of military projects.

Last month the Albanese government tried to distance itself from the decision, with a government spokesperson saying: “the bipartisan statement from the Parliamentary Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit is a matter for the Committee.”

Chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, Labor MP Josh Burns, told The Nightly “the parliament absolutely should be scrutinising the performance of the department of defence, and we are examining additional methods to do so”.

The ANAO’s most recent audit found $80 billion worth of defence acquisitions were running a cumulative 33 years late and accused the government of obscuring the true state of delays by refusing to publicly disclose details on key projects.

Scrapping the Major Projects Report was first suggested by the ANAO itself, which cited a lack of resources as well as increasing secrecy and non-compliance from the Department of Defence.

Former Defence official Marcus Hellyer had described the scrapping of ANAO reports as the “final nail in the coffin of transparency and accountability” for the Department and warned poor performance on large projects would go unreported and unremarked.

In March legislation was passed to establish a new Parliamentary Joint Committee on Defence (PJCD), similar to the existing Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which is expected to grill officials in classified private hearings.

Critics of the move such as Dr Hellyer have described the situation as “ludicrous” and warned the new JSCD will do nothing to boost transparency when it meets behind closed doors out of public view.

Senator James Paterson said the Iran conflict was a reminder of how dangerous the strategic environment is right now.

“Independent and parliamentary scrutiny keeps the government honest about what they are delivering and when, in the national interest,” he said.

“The Albanese government should heed the Senate’s advice and immediately instruct defence to resume cooperation with the ANAO so the parliament can fulfill its role of ensuring taxpayers money is spent well acquiring the defence capability we need urgently.”