- From: The Daily Telegraph Link to article reproduced below
- February 18, 2011
STEPHEN Smith is the latest in a long line of Defence ministers who, despite warnings, have been shocked to find that vital information from military brass or senior officials is flawed or untrue.
Like earlier occupants of one of the Government's toughest jobs, Smith has vowed to clean up behaviour and implement a process of responsibility in the unwieldy 100,000-strong organisation. Apart from institutional resistance, Smith's biggest problem will be time.
Given the current volatile politics and Labor's parlous polling, he is unlikely to have the chance to effect change in what is at best a lumbering bureaucracy and at worst a closed shop.
Unlike his predecessors, Smith took the step this week of actually publishing some of the flawed advice and lies that he had been fed about the state of the navy's heavy lift ship HMAS Tobruk.
With both the amphibious lift ships HMAS Manoora and Kanimbla unable to put to sea, the Tobruk, a 40-year-old workhorse, was the last option available to the Government as Cyclone Yasi bore down on North Queensland.
In the event, the ship was not required to assist with the disaster, but that is hardly the point. Had she been required, she would have been unable to put to sea.
Smith had been told on January 28 that Tobruk was being maintained at 48 hours notice to move. On February 4 the navy assured him the ship had left its dock and was being prepared to return to 48 hours notice for sea.
By the time he delivered his stinging rebuke at the Australian Defence Magazine Congress in Canberra on February 15, this had still not occurred and Smith had clearly had enough.
Smith also released advice about the amphibious ships that he had been handed on February 9 by Defence Chief Angus Houston and Secretary Ian Watt.
It is an appalling document that not only sheets home the blame to the original 1994 decision to buy the rust-riddled vessels at a bargain price from the US Navy, but also reveals that they were purchased without logistics support packages. This is a recipe for the problems that have beset the ships - and their eventual demise.
"Efforts to remediate this shortcoming have, over the years, never properly succeeded through lack of resources or pressure to keep the ships running to meet emerging operational requirements," the advice says.
Unfortunately for Defence and the navy, no one bothered to tell their political masters until it was all too late.
This is typical of Defence culture, where many aspects of its business are run on the basis of "get it done until it can't be done and then we will think of something to tell the Government".
In the past ministers have been stunned by this approach, but have kept their frustrations under wraps. Stephen Smith is clearly not that way inclined and wants Australian taxpayers to have a clear understanding of where the blame really lies.
His next challenge will be doing something about it.
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Indeed... Perhaps the Minister should just sack every second general and hope some better officers are promoted. Surely it is not acceptable for the senior leadership of the ADF to make a practice of misleading the Australian Government?
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