Chair's Foreword

Chair's Foreword

This interim report details the Committee’s review and consideration of the 2020–21 and 2021–22 Major Projects Reports (MPRs).

The Major Projects Report is prepared annually by the Department of Defence (Defence) and the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to provide a greater level of assurance that taxpayer funds on major projects in Defence are used as efficiently and effectively as possible and increase the transparency of these projects to the Parliament and the Australian public.

The MPR is a comprehensive product containing detailed information from Defence on major projects, as well as the ANAO’s examination of project performance in terms of cost, schedule and capability, and additional analysis of Defence's project management practices and procedures.

The Committee’s report makes three recommendations:

  • Two which address issues that were identified in previous years, relating to Defence’s process for contingency funding, capturing lessons learnt and its use of caveats and deficiencies in capability reporting, and
  • One which seeks to have Defence elevate projects to the Projects of Concern in a timely manner.

The Committee was concerned by the excessive delay in actioning the Minister for Defence’s decision to make the Civil Military Air Traffic Management System project a Project of Concern.

The Projects of Concern list (and the new Projects of Interest list) ensures projects receive additional support as well as provide transparency to the Parliament and the public on the performance of major projects. There’s no point in having the system if there are delays of over a year in adding projects to the list which the Minister has decided are clearly off track.

The next phases of this inquiry will examine the Department of Defence’s procurement of the Hunter Class Frigates, which is a project included in the MPR, as well as the MPR’s scope and guidelines.

I would like to thank Defence and the ANAO for their cooperation in the inquiry to date and look forward to engaging with them further as the inquiry continues. I also thank my colleagues on the Committee for their collegiate deliberation on these matters.

Mr Julian Hill MP

Chair

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