Defence changes will 'make things worse'

SYDNEY (AAP) - The Australia Defence Association (ADA) says proposed reforms to the defence organisation will make things worse.
The ADA's executive director Neil James said on Tuesday there was much wrong with the Department of Defence but most of that was in the department, not the defence force.
Mr James said that was lost on many Australians including, it seemed, Professor Rufus Black, author of the latest review which forms the basis of proposed reforms launched by Defence Minister Stephen Smith on Tuesday.
"The Black Review and its flawed recommendations, and the minister's intention to implement them, will inevitably inflame and indeed spread the disease, not cure it," he said.
"Much of the Black-inspired changes are simply reversions to structures, processes and institutional cultures found severely wanting in the 1997 Defence Efficiency Review, only 14 years ago."
The latest reforms aim to strengthen defence accountability, particularly in the area of acquisition of new equipment.
To facilitate this, two new under-secretary positions will be created. Most of the hundreds of committees within the defence organisation will be wound up.
Mr James said Australia primarily maintained the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to deter and win wars and the Department of Defence primarily existed to support the ADF in achieving that mission.
"It demonstrates a failure of comprehension that civil control of the military is a constitutional function properly exercised only by ministers, not bureaucrats, or by civilians generally, and certainly not by even more, and ever more senior, bureaucrats," he said.
"There is no such thing as civilian authority over the military exercised by public servants."