Aussie MoD To Study Further Reform In Acquisition (Dec. 9)
The Minister for Defence, John Moore, today convened the first meeting of the Defence and Industry Advisory Council (DIAC). The role of DIAC is to provide advice to the Government on strategic matters related to achieving the best industry support for Australia's defence capabilities.
"Today's meeting is very timely as Defence is experiencing great change," Mr Moore said. "Our involvement in East Timor, for example, has brought many Departmental policies and practices into focus. This includes the role of industry in support of ADF operations."
The Minister said DIAC discussed a wide range of issues including the need to introduce partnerships between Defence and industry, the importance of Defence acquisition reform, industry rationalisation, and competition policy.
"I was pleased to note that all participants, from Defence and industry, agreed on the challenges Defence faces and what needs to be done to meet those challenges," said Mr Moore.
"To successfully deal with new strategic and commercial imperatives, Defence needs to investigate new business practices along with more innovative and effective industry policies, and acquisition processes. Importantly, this includes the need to develop a closer Defence and industry relationship which is crucial to maintaining Australia's security."
To this end the Minister announced that DIAC has established two working groups which will investigate ways to make Defence more innovative in its procurement practices.
The first, on Defence Acquisition Reform, will be headed by David MacGibbon. It will identify current limitations in the Defence acquisition process, and develop practical measures and initiatives to improve Defence acquisition. The aim is to make the acquisition process more timely, more cost-effective to all parties, more output-oriented, more adaptive to the pace of technological change, and less risk-averse.
The second review, on Private Finance Initiatives, will be headed by David Mortimer. It will liaise with industry and Defence to investigate and develop practical proposals for the application of Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) to both current and future Defence projects.
Mr Moore said that both working groups would report back to DIAC at its next meeting in March 2000.
DIAC was an initiative arising from the Defence and Industry Strategic Policy Statement. Membership of the Council is drawn from Government, defence industry and industry more generally.
