Opposition Defence spokesman David Johnston told Sky's News Agenda program that the large number of civilian employees compared to those in uniform was not sustainable.
"We've got 23,000 public servants in Defence running 59,000 uniforms," Senator Johnston said. "Now, this is unsustainable. The finances are an unsustainable mess. The beginning is to put a handle on this and get to the bottom of where we are going to reform Defence in a way that doesn't diminish capability."
Senator Johnston said the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank had defined the defence budget and the department's finances as an "unsustainable mess".
" Now, those words ring very loudly in my ears," he said. "Anybody seeking to have responsibility for defence is going to have to put a handle on the unsustainable mess."
I think he forgot the reserves but point taken.
Those civilians vote you know. And any civilian that could be considered dead wood would be silly to vote for the coalition.
Elections having consequences and all that.
8 comments:
.Going on his previous utterances, the bloke is a dill. He believes that the Gods come from LM after his visit earlier this year.
We do need to do something, however I doubt that he has any capacity to understand the real issue.
I wonder who gave him this line?
I'm a currently serving ADF Officer and I, along with most of my uniformed colleagues, have always wondered what the hell those 23000 public servants actually do.
What do those 23000 public servants do?
Paul Dibb said it best. They are the gatekeepers of strategic doctrine. As gatekeepers, they ensure that people with the wrong idea don't get into the $27 billion party.
You know, "wrong ideas" like planes that actually work and submarines that don't leak and sufficient ammunition for wartime needs and such.
Because they're so smart, their job is to do the important intellectual work so that you in the military can just do the fighting and dying.
Yours is not to reason why.....
It is this simple.
Pre-ADF evolution in 1974, the independent armed forces were properly subject to direct political oversight with only a pretty small nucleus of dedicated career Public Servants embedded within the respective Services headquarters.
The Tange Re-organisation diluted the direct ministerial representation for each of the armed forces and instituted Public Service domination of a thinly-veiled unified ADF.
Pre-Tange, the military largely managed their own hardware acquisition projects pretty well in accord with sound guidelines, but that process got jettisoned and was replaced by the DMO ogre with both DMO and DSTO now having their own ministerial clout separate from the central defence portfolio.
Much is spoken re the supposed failure of the Services to co-operatively work together jointly pre-ADF formation, but that is just crap when performances in prior conflicts are properly analysed.
The answer to the present mess is to untangle much of the failed Tange experiment and return accountability to the Service Chiefs with direct ministerial representation in lieu of Public Service domination, which has really become 'control'. But alas, the political will is unlikely to emerge from within both of the major political parties.
Opposition fear of the voting potential of the Public Service, as intimated by Eric, is really irrelevant as majority of them are rusted-on Labor Party supporters.
Perhaps the Liberals should take note of the end result of the so-called heartless culling of the Queensland public service by Campbell Newman. The press was predicting his imminent downfall, and revolt from within the LNP ranks due to the perceived public reaction.
Nothing of course was said about the incompetence in allowing the public service to grow to the size that it had over the period of the last 10 years.
Lo and behold, the latest Newspoll on Monday shows that his popularity and that of the LNP is exactly where it was at the time of the election.
It illustrates that the public are not stupid, as such actions are possible and necessary.
The Libs could sack all 23,000 Defence public servants and they might lose 100 votes - and even that 100 figure is debatable, for anyone who's worked in a uniform in Defence would attest that there's a gene common to 99% of public servants in Canberra that makes that person a rusted-on Labor supporter.
Bushranger 71,
The difficulties with the Tange reorganisation are just teething problems. You should expect teething problems in the period immediately following a major reform. Reform is never easy. The overall benefits of reform will follow.
After all, it's only 36 years since the Tange reforms were implemented.
Best wishes
Where is Bonza when you need him?
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