The Defence management review and the Super Hornet decision

This policy forum is the text of a speech by Senator John Faulkner (NSW, ALP) in debate in the Senate on 13 August on the Defence Management Review, headed by Elizabeth Proust which reported in April 2007. Faulkner concentrates on "dysfunctional" ministerial-departmental relationship, and on the case of the decision by the National Security Committee of Cabinet to accept Defence Minister Brendan Nelson\u27s recommendation to purchase 24 Super Hornet fighters at a cost of $6.6 billion, without a specific recommendation from the Defence Department. "At some stage perhaps more will become known about what occurred at that infamous National Security Committee of Cabinet meeting, but the bottom line is that a $6.6 billion decision had been made without considered input from the CDF and the Secretary of the Department of Defence or their staff and advisers.