Government Defence Bungling Impacts On Troops Chris Evans - Shadow Minister for Defence, Shadow Minister for Reconciliation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs

Media Statement - 13 January 2003

The Howard Government's continuing bungling of the Defence portfolio is impacting directly on the capacity of Australian troops to defence Australia and themselves.

Because of extensive delays to a $1.5 billion upgrade project the Government has sent frigates to the Gulf that do not have up to date air defences.

The Howard Government chose to buy 40 year old second hand Seasprite helicopters for our Anzac Frigates, which are now more than three years behind schedule with $800 million already spent, leaving the frigates without the helicopters they need.

A leaked report showed that because of Government cutbacks the SAS had one third the ammunition needed to train for their war-fighting role.

The report noted that to date Special Forces had "not been tested by a major war-fighting deployment. This is fortunate given the parlous state of training on major weapon systems…"

The independent Australian Strategic Policy Institute noted that because of delays to projects our F/A-18s do not have the protections needed to defend themselves against modern missiles. The Government has signalled that 14 F/A-18s will be deployed to the Gulf.

While service personnel are struggling with ageing equipment and a lack of ammunition the Government has budgeted for a $1 billion cash surplus in Defence for this year.

It is clear that the successes of our Defence personnel in recent deployments are due entirely to their commitment and skills and have occurred despite the efforts of the Howard Government.

A recently released Audit Office report highlighted the significant problems in the administration of Defence's finances. The Audit Office took the unprecedented step of qualifying the Department's accounts because the status of over $6 billion of assets was unknown.