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Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy blasted “overprogramming”, “zombie projects” and “fraud” within the previous Coalition government’s defence portfolio, during remarks made at the Defence Connect Budget Summit.
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Addressing members of the defence industry, Minister Conroy said he empathised with the challenges faced by the domestic defence industry and confirmed the federal government has had to make hard decisions about projects that don’t meet the nation’s strategic circumstances.
However, Minister Conroy laid the blame at the feet of the previous Coalition government, alleging that the Coalition mismanaged Defence funds that resulted in “fraud” against the defence industry.
“We are confronting challenges that we have had to deal with (for Defence funding). We were dealing with massive overprogramming form the last government; overprogramming levels were reaching 140 per cent. There were contracts and programs for 140 per cent of the Defence budget for a given year,” he said.
“We had zombie projects that were perpetuating a fraud upon the defence industry and chewing up resources in Defence.
“We made the hard but honest decision that these projects were important but we can’t go forward with them because they don’t meet the strategic urgency. We have been really clear about that.
“Funding must be realistic and deliverable … I can appreciate that some in this room and in the defence industry have suffered because the last government perpetuated a fraud of $42 billion, and we have been dealing with that right now.”
Minister Conroy, speaking at the event, detailed several new projects being developed and said he is eager to see new production pathways established for the defence industry – to fund their ideas into reality.
The summit follows the release of the 2024 federal budget, announcing more than $1 billion over three years from 2024–25 to accelerate priority investments in targeting, long-range fires, theatre logistics, fuel resilience and robotic and autonomous systems.
The budget also announced $11.1 billion over 10 years from 2024–25 to deliver the new surface combatant fleet for Navy and $38.2 billion over seven years from 2027–28, and $7.7 billion a year every year after that to support the next-generation capabilities within the rebuilt Integrated Investment Program.
During the event, shadow minister for defence Andrew Hastie also took to the stage to share the opposition’s opinion of federal budget funding announced for the defence industry.
“Under the Albanese government, we don’t have a clearly articulated threat. We don’t have a clear strategy to deter and defeat it. And the defence budget demonstrates this,” he said.
Hastie added, “$50.3 billion of additional spending over the next 10 years but only $5.7 billion of additional spending over the forward estimates. Most of that funding in fact, $3.8 billion, occurs in the final year of 2027–28.
“The back end of the forwards, not the front end which is the here and now. Where it matters.
“Under the Albanese government, we’ll become weaker before we get stronger; just as the strategic risk in the Indo-Pacific is peaking.”
