Name: Australia launches major defence reform amid rising China tensions
Uploaded: 2025-12-01T06:12:10.164Z
Duration: 1 min 52 s
Description: Australia has unveiled a major defence overhaul, creating a new agency that merges naval shipbuilding, guided weapons, and capability acquisition units. The reform follows cost overruns in key projects like the Hunter-class frigates and comes amid heightened Chinese naval activity near Australian waters.

Australia has unveiled a major defence overhaul, creating a new agency that merges naval shipbuilding, guided weapons, and capability acquisition units. The reform follows cost overruns in key projects like the Hunter-class frigates and comes amid heightened Chinese naval activity near Australian waters.

Canberra

The Australian government has announced the creation of a new defence delivery agency, merging three existing agencies responsible for naval shipbuilding, guided weapons, and capability acquisition. This move comes as Australia faces increasing pressure from Chinese military activities near its waters, with recent cost overruns and delays in defence projects such as the Hunter-class frigates.

The new agency, affecting 6,500 staff, will start within the defence department on July 1 and become independent after a year. While the government asserts there will be no job cuts, critics argue the reform does not directly address capability or equipment shortfalls. The acting Prime Minister acknowledged the need for improvement but did not guarantee greater efficiency or cost-effectiveness.

Australia launches major defence reform amid rising China tensions

Nine months since Chinese warships circumnavigated Australia, more could be on the way. This task group is currently in the Philippine Sea and we don't know where it's going. The federal government was caught off guard by live fire exercises in the Tasman last time. It says it's keeping an eye on a People's Liberation Army flotilla. We are monitoring it and we will continue to do so until we know it's not coming to Australia. In response to an increasingly assertive Beijing, Australia has sought to ramp up its military capability but efforts have been toppled by cost blowouts and project delays. Just take the Hunter-class frigate, now costing tens of billions more than first announced. We're now getting probably the most expensive frigates on the planet. We've only limited capability because we've allowed this project to be poorly managed. To get better bang for the taxpayer's buck, the federal government today announced a new defence delivery agency. This is indeed the biggest reform to the defence organisation in 50 years. Merging three existing agencies on naval ship building, guided weapons and capability acquisition. For the six and a half thousand staff, one quarter of the public service. We are not seeing job cuts here. It will come into force on July 1 within the defence department, becoming an independent agency after a year. It will be headed up by a national armaments director, the government's likely to head hunt from the private sector, not someone in uniform. These changes move bureaucrats around on the page, but they tell us nothing about additional capability and equipment. In making this announcement, the acting Prime Minister refused to admit the department's been failing taxpayers or wasting money, only to say it can do better. There's no guarantee that this will necessarily lead to a more cost effective and efficient capability development process, but I do think we need to try. Chloe Boris, 10 News.

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