Since all navies have a percentage of their ships in some sort of repair cycle, I don't know what is considered normal for the RAN.
There are some more severe mentions in the article that point to outright waste.
Two of the navy's newest ships, minehunters HMAS Hawkesbury and HMAS Norman - built by Australian Defence Industries in Newcastle and commissioned in 2000 - were "decrewed" and placed into reserve this year.
If the ships were required to come back into service, the Department of Defence estimates it would take up to five years to bring them back to operational status.
There also seems to be events of rework where repairs were not done right the first time.
Available crew for the ships is still a problem.
Australia is a nation that needs frigates, patrol boats, troop transports and logistics ships. I would like to put submarines on that list but skills are short there too.
How ships that are bigger, more expensive to operate and require more crew (the planned Air Warfare Destroyers and the Canberra flattop amphibs) are going to be sustained over their service life is a big question mark.
I suspect more long-term dock space to park them will be required because this navy and defence community is not skilled enough to keep what they have in an operationally ready status.
The taxpayer generously pays $27B for Defence each year. What they get in return is low value for the money spent.
