Military madness; Why?

[Bushranger 71]

Hi again Scran.

There is ongoing unfettered Australian Public Service recruiting for highly paid positions in DoD and DMO so civilian domination of the defence realm is growing prodigiously. If the organisational structure was streamlined along the following lines, huge efficiencies would be achievable:

a. abolish both of the Material and Science & Personnel ministries,
b. downsize DMO and DSTO making them agencies subordinate to MinDef,
c. establish cells of DMO within DoD and the respective armed forces headquarters,
c. vest personnel management within the Secretary of Defence/CDF diarchy, where it belongs,
d. create parliamentary secretaries for each of the armed forces subordinate to MinDef; and
e. vest authority for all defence expenditure in MinDef.

These measures would dilute the public service domination of the defence realm and reinstate more traditional political control of the military; also generate big savings in manpower costs enabling labour to be diverted for other national needs.

Dare I say that defence budgetting could also be pruned to an affordable and adequate 7.5 percent of federal government revenue, not the near 10 percent as now and projected to unrealistically increase out to 2030. That would really cause some soul-searching regarding wasteful spending. Tying projected defence expenditure to GDP is just deceitful smoke and mirrors stuff. Former MinDef Fitzgibbon was on the right track pulling back defence outlay projections to the 4 year budget estimates process but then Parliamentary Secretary Combet reverted that to a 10 year horizon due to lobbying from largely foreign-owned defence industry.

Are such reforms realistic? Sadly, the political will probably does not exist within either of the major political parties; but pretty bold action is essential if the existing shambolic scenario is to be remedied. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that so many former politicians, senior public servants and military chiefs have been or are now riding the Defence 'gravy train'. Just check who were/are directly employed in influential appointments by the multi-national arms conglomerates and/or as lobbyists on mind-blowing financial packages.