Australia will reorganise its defence department, forming a defence delivery agency and appointing a national armaments director to improve defence spending and delivery, controversial Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Monday.
The changes to start in July next year will merge the existing capability acquisition and sustainment group; guided weapons and explosive ordnance group; and naval shipbuilding and sustainment group. The new agency will report directly to the defence minister.
"This is one of the most significant reforms to defence that we have seen. It will greatly change the way defence operates," Marles said in a press briefing in Canberra.
The reforms, "will see a much bigger bang for buck for the defence spend," as Australia plans to spend an extra AU$70 billion (US$46 billion) over the next decade, Marles said.
The current Labor Government has increased the size of the Australian bureaucracy by around 30 per cent since 2022.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Christine Chen; Editing by Tom Hogue)
