Defence undershoots by $10b on new weapons
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The Defence Department is on track to underspend by more than $10 billion on new equipment by 2023, despite high-level warnings about the risk of war, according to Labor’s analysis of budget papers.
While the Morrison government regularly touts its $270 billion, 10-year arms build-up, in 2020-21 the capital acquisition budget for new equipment is $2.1 billion, or 18.1 per cent lower than what was forecast in 2017, now totalling $9.5 billion.
The Joint Strike Fighter is among Australia’s most expensive defence projects.
Joe Armao
Since the 2016 Defence white paper, which heralded the modernisation of the military amid rising regional uncertainty, the amount underspent has cumulatively totalled almost $6.2 billion, with the gap between what was first budgeted and what was actually being spent growing wider each year.