Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Goes to Davos!

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At this year’s Davos, less government officials were present than usual, yet Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was not only present, but she was also an agenda contributor, pushing for greater online safety.

I asked in what capacity Ms Julie Inman Grant was present at Davos for the World Economic Forum 2024 annual meeting, what was the cost to Australian taxpayers and whether staff travelled with her on this trip at public expense. As an independent statutory authority, Commissioner Inman Grant is planning to embrace global opportunities to help achieve the outcomes she perceives necessary for online safety. The Commissioner is seeking broader powers to achieve her agenda, for our own good of course, and once again this begs the question exactly who is deciding what is ‘good’?

Listening to her speak about online safety regulations, the one word conspicuous by its absence is censorship. The other missing words were freedom of expression.

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Snowy 2.0 Will Never Dig Itself Out of a Hole

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In Senate Estimates, Snowy Hydro Chief, Dennis Barnes, revealed that the tunnel boring machine, Florence, has finally started boring again after being bogged for most of the last year. Florence became bogged because the planning for Snowy 2.0 was rushed and designed to meet a political timetable under Prime Minister Turnbull. A critical review of the Turnbull thought bubble would have never authorised work to start. The scheme has now run into problem after problem that should have been foreseen.

The bogging of Florence is just one of many problems that has seen the costs rise from $2 billion when announced, to a staggering $12 billion today. This does not include $5 – $10 billion in poles and wires to get the power out. Those lines will carve a scar through the Kosciuszko National Park, which for some reason is okay with “greenies”.

Hydro needs water. If the scheme has to rely only on water being pumped up to the top dam, the scheme will never generate enough power to pay for itself and will become a white elephant. The Snowy Hydro Authority are relying on a 2002 water agreement that gives them access to water, however there are many agreements, notably the Murray Darling Basin Plan, that now lay claim to that same water. It is criminal that the Authority has not sorted out its water supply at this late stage.

In the second video I asked about local information received that the tunnel drilling machine will encounter natural seams of asbestos, which will result in more cost and delays. I was surprised to have this confirmed, as asbestos has not been mentioned so far. I can only wonder what else they are hiding. This project is 100% funded by the taxpayers who I think are about to lose a very large sum of money. It will be cheaper to stop the project now than throw good money after bad.

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Foreign-Owned Homes Vacant as Growing Numbers of Australians Are Made Homeless!

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Jim Chalmers has said the government has no idea how many homes bought by overseas investors are sitting vacant in Australia.

I asked in senate estimates how the government plans to fine foreign owners of empty houses if they can’t even find that out. It’s just a thought bubble so Labor can try to look good without actually doing anything.

Just ban foreign ownership altogether!

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you for appearing today. My questions are on Treasury’s plans to find foreign investors who leave properties that they own vacant. How you going to enforce that? Even Treasurer Jim Chalmers said we have no idea how many are being left vacant. Are you going to send people around doorknocking to see if there are any empty homes? It sounds like headline grabbing to me. 

Ms R Kelley: As we’ve mentioned before, the Australian Taxation Office does have a compliance function that specifically deals with the vacancy issue. I have a colleague here from the ATO who can assist in answering the question, but they have a very well-established compliance program. They do look at the vacancy rate and they do enforce that when houses are left vacant for more than 183 days per year; they do actually follow up. I’m sure we can get some numbers, if you like, in terms of recent action by the ATO, but part of the government’s announcements around the increase in fees was also that increased resources were being given to the ATO to assist in strengthening that compliance approach. 

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you, Ms Kelley. 

Mr Thompson : That’s correct. I thought I might briefly explain how we enforce the existing vacancy fee rules. Obviously, these are amendments to the rates, but they don’t change our enforcement approach. People who are in scope—in the population in 2022-23 that was about 12,500—that we track are required to lodge a vacancy fee return every year. Some of those foreign investors declare to us that the property is vacant, in which case we levy them the vacancy fee. We also conduct compliance activities on the remainder of the population. For those foreign investors who don’t lodge a return, we deem a vacancy fee on them and they need to contact us if they think that we have deemed that fee incorrectly. 

Senator ROBERTS: How accurate is your register of foreign owners? Have you done any testing on it to make sure all the foreign owners are in fact registering? 

Mr Thompson : Yes. As we explained in some questions on notice following the last estimates, we get the full data set for the real property transaction registry. For example, in 2022-23 the number was around 2.4 million individual entries. We work through a range of data-matching techniques to get that down to a potential compliance pool in the thousands and then we publish our compliance numbers, and they’re generally in the hundreds. In that sense, we’re very confident about the in-scope population under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act rule. 

I would make the point that there is sometime debate about the exact numbers, and I think that goes to the different definitions that different regimes use. For example, we’re aware that the rule of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act is slightly different from state and territory land tax acts. There’s also a NAB survey that is run every so often, and that asks the question about overseas buyers, as opposed to foreigners. When people talk about the numbers—I’d say we’re very confident of the numbers under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act definition, but that’s not to say that, if people are using different definitions, you might not come up with different numbers. 

Senator ROBERTS: That’s a question I’ll ask later, in another session. When it made its release, the government said it expects to collect $500 million a year in these extra changes—$170,000 per person. If the charge is $170,000, that’s less than 3,000 homes, and many of those 3,000 will probably still stay vacant because foreign buyers are rich and can probably afford to just pay the charge. Has Treasury conducted any modelling on how many of those 3,000 they expect to become occupied because of this thought bubble? You just mentioned 12,500 vacancies. 

Ms R Kelley: I think we need to clarify that the predicted revenue is based on the total application fees as well as the vacancy fees. 

Senator ROBERTS: How many houses do you expect to be trapped in this scheme? 

Ms R Kelley : It depends. Every year there are different numbers. In the last financial year, 3,542 houses were purchased by foreign investors, so they would definitely be captured. The people who are purchasing are captured. The application fees have been tripled. They range with the value of the property, and the application fee increases with the increase in the property value. Then you have the numbers that Mr Thompson was talking about in terms of the number of houses that are already purchased and registered and that the vacancy fees apply to. The calculation around the revenue are based on those sorts of numbers as well. It’s both factors. 

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, it makes it really simple, doesn’t it? Why not ban all foreign ownership of housing? That would solve the housing crisis. 

Senator Gallagher: I am not sure it would when we look at the numbers involved in the evidence that’s just been given, and that is not the government’s position. 

Senator ROBERTS: Why isn’t it the government position? There are Australians in caravans, tents and cars. 

Senator Gallagher: Again, there are a number of reasons why there is pressure in the housing market at the moment, whether you be renting, homeless or seeking to buy your first home. Not all of that can be attributed, as I think you would like to argue, to foreign ownership. 

Senator ROBERTS: I am not saying ‘all,’ but I am saying massive immigration is driving up housing prices. 

Senator Gallagher: That, again, is a different issue to the subject of foreign ownership. You’ve been given the numbers today. 

Senator ROBERTS: We’re concerned about Australians residents and citizens in tents, caravans, cars, under bridges— 

Senator Gallagher: That is why we have all the effort on the housing side to generate supply. 

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you, Chair. 

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Media Release: Suncorp Deal a Wasted Chance for People’s Bank

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The ACCC ruled last year that allowing ANZ to buy Suncorp would reduce banking competition. Today, the Australian Competition Tribunal disagreed and allowed the merger.

The Tribunal’s decision is a wasted opportunity when Suncorp should have been bought and turned into a People’s Bank. There is some logic to the Tribunal’s decision. Australian banks are, at best, a cartel and at worst, a monopoly – one bank with many logos. In short, there must be competition before that competition can be lessened. Our banks do not compete – they work together.

This is a result of the same foreign merchant banks holding controlling shareholdings in all of Australia’s major banks. In turn, the banks behave in exactly the same way, offering almost identical risk management, products, fees and charges.

Banks are working in collusion to close bank branches and eliminate cash, to force everyday Australian consumers into more electronic banking services, from which banks profit.

Banks are acting together to de-bank competitors like crypto exchanges and bullion dealers, using their market power to squash their competitors. The result is obscene profits ($35 billion last year), much of which is sent as dividends to foreign merchant banks.

This is what the Tribunal has decided is an acceptable way to run banking in Australia.

Last year I proposed using the Future Fund to buy Suncorp for their asking price of $5 billion and then turn it into a people’s bank, one that would operate with their customers’ interests at heart, in a fair, ethical and honest manner.

One Nation will continue to campaign for a people’s bank and I call on Treasurer Jim Chalmers to use his powers to direct the ACCC to investigate collusion, common ownership and restrictive trade practices being conducted by the Big 4 banks.

It’s time to force real competition between the banks and establish a People’s Bank.

Media-ReleaseDownload
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Defence Secrecy Over Fatal Taipan Helicopter Crash

Why is the ADF so secretive and unwilling to answer straightforward questions? The refusal to provide information is endemic in Defence, and there is no justification for it.

The answer to why three ADF vessels were involved in a photo shoot instead of participating in the search and potential rescue of victims of the downed Taipan helicopter could have easily been provided when I first asked. It could have been given when the question was put on notice. Instead, it was treated as though cloaked in secrecy, despite the fact that the answer was not classified information.

Since these questions, we have discovered that Defence deleted all images of the photo shoot from their website. If it was a simple answer, why the cover-up?

We also know that General Campbell’s assertion that these ships couldn’t operate in the area is nonsense, given that the HMAS Adelaide, according to Defence -“has been designed with the shallowest possible draft to allow her to… manoeuvre tactically in the shallow waters common in the littoral regions”.

The Minister and the ADF need to realise that we are all on the same side and stop trying to withhold information from the Australian public, whom they are employed to serve.

It might be embarrassing, but the cover-up is always worse than the initial crime.

Despite General Campbell’s initial claim that this type of boat couldn’t navigate the waters around the Whitsundays, it turned out to be untrue. General Campbell later clarified that HMAS Adelaide was, in fact, tasked to the search and rescue operation after the photo was taken. Why is it so hard to get a straight answer out of Defence?

Transcript

CHAIR: Senator Roberts, you have the call. 

Senator ROBERTS: General Campbell, initially you said that you were unfamiliar with a question on notice; then one of your staff handed you the question on notice this morning. You then had lunch; presumably you chatted. I concluded that you were saying, ‘There’s not a single person in this building right now’—at the time—’in the waiting rooms that can answer whether there was a single vessel on the Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 maritime photo shoot on 29 July, when the other vessels in the area were searching for the downed Taipan.’ I’ve already asked this four months ago and, while I have a response, I still do not have an answer. You did not answer it on notice; now you want to take it on notice again. I wonder where the Chief of Navy was. Could he explain? Could he have been brought to the table? This is a question about Navy vessels. I’m wondering whether there was no-one in this room or in the waiting rooms who could have answered that question. I’d like to table these documents, Chair. 

CHAIR: I’ll have a look at them first. 

Senator ROBERTS: The United States Navy has taken a photo and it’s dated 29 July. It’s an obvious photo shoot of the Talisman Sabre fleet and, in it, they say that the American ships are sailing in formation with the Royal Australian Navy Canberra class landing helicopter dock ship HMAS Canberra as part of the Talisman Sabre photo shoot. I’ll wait until you get the photo. 

CHAIR: We’re just going to circulate it for information only because we need to be able to verify the photo. I know that there’s other information there, but we need to be able to verify it before we actually agree to table it. For the benefit of the witnesses, I’ll agree for it to be circulated as information only at this stage. As I said earlier, in my opening statement, it would be great if senators could send us an email with an electronic copy so that we can ensure that the secretariat can do what they do in a more efficient manner.

Senator ROBERTS: I’m sure that they’ll be watching. 

CHAIR: I’m sure they have other things on, too. Who were you directing your question to? 

Gen. Campbell: We have the photographs. What is your question? 

Senator ROBERTS: There are several questions. First of all, this shows an Australian vessel at the photo shoot on the 29th and it wasn’t searching for the wreckage or the bodies from the downed Taipan. Why is that the case? 

Gen. Campbell: I’ll let the Chief of Navy explain in more detail, but senators will see this photograph is out in open water, in an extended area. There are some ships in the Australian fleet and, indeed, in the US and international partner fleet, that are not suited to the work required in confined waters and with variable depths to deal with searching for a lost helicopter and crew. There’s a distinction here between what is suitable and hence applied to the search and what is not suitable and not considered for the search. I’ll turn to the Chief of Navy, as perhaps he would wish to speak further. 

Vice Adm. Hammond: The CDF has laid it out precisely. That large array of ships in the photograph is in open water, some distance from land. It is routine to mark the beginning or the end of a large naval exercise with a group photograph. You’ll see there are aircraft carriers in there of the United States Navy—multiple vessels. There are Australian ships that are not in that photograph, because they were engaged in the search and rescue effort in confined waters inside the Whitsunday Islands. I submit that, had all of those ships been in that search area, we would have had a problem; there just isn’t enough sea room. The focus was on conducting a surface search initially for survivors, as I understand it, and for signs of wreckage. There were civilian craft involved and there were aircraft, rotary wing and fixed-wing, and there was no shortage of assets for that search—that very tragic incident. 

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you for your explanation. I understand your explanation. I’ll read the two responses that we got to questions on notice. I was specifically asking about a schedule of ships and boats that were available. The answer was: During Exercise Talisman Sabre 23, two maritime photographic activities were held on 22 and 29 July 2023. These activities included vessels participating in the exercise from Australia, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Nowhere did it give the explanation that you’ve just given—nowhere. 

Vice Adm. Hammond: As the Chief of Navy, I’m not involved in the conduct of the Chief of Joint Operations. I suspect that request did not come to me. 

Senator ROBERTS: I’m not saying that it did. I’m saying that it came from Defence, and Defence were very guarded in what they said. They said, ‘We were sincere, and we are sincere, in pursuing this issue.’ I got another answer, to question No. 23, which stated: There were six Royal Australian Navy warships in the area of operations on the night of the incident. Defence does not comment on the operational tasking of its assets. When we’ve seen what we’ve seen with the Taipans and been horrified by the loss of life on those Taipans, and then we see the nice photo shoot that we were on, we have a duty to ask those questions. We didn’t get the damn answers. We were led astray. It was suppressed. What you have said makes sense to me. You’re not going to have a US aircraft carrier ploughing around in the Whitsundays looking for a helicopter; I get that. You had at least one boat out in open waters; I get it. Why couldn’t we have been told that? What is Defence repeatedly trying to hide? We have seen issue after issue which Defence seems sensitive about. 

Vice Adm. Hammond: I understand your frustration. I am not in a position to answer why there was not a more fulsome response. I stand by my testimony. The resources available that had the necessary capabilities were applied at speed—that is my understanding—the minute the accident was known, which was at night; the night of the accident. I don’t recall being asked for comment in response to your inquiries. 

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you. I accept your testimony, but we will be putting further questions on notice about this issue. Chair, I draw to the committee’s attention that there seem to be so many things that this chief of defence forces is either not open about or is hiding. 

Senator McAllister: Senator—and Chair, perhaps—is it necessary to make general ad hominem attacks on the officials before the committee? Officials are here to answer questions about the budget. Officials—I think you have observed this morning—are willing to speak, as they have done now, when asked questions about particular matters. I am not sure it assists anyone to make broad and general accusations which are not substantiated against individuals in the room. I am not sure that helps the Senate in its work.  

Senator ROBERTS: There are many issues that have not been talked about openly. Senator Shoebridge, Senator Lambie, other senators and I have raised serious issues, and we don’t seem to be getting the answers. Minister, you should have been at least doing a PII when you didn’t. I put the same question to you: there seems to be something that the defence department runs over the top of you— 

Senator McAllister: Senator Roberts, I am happy to answer questions. If you have questions, please put them to us; to the officials and to me— 

Senator ROBERTS: I am happy to do so. It is not just my frustration; it is my deep sadness at the loss of life which seems to have been unnecessarily lost in those Taipans. 

CHAIR: I don’t think anyone would dispute that. We are all very sad about what has happened— 

Senator ROBERTS: It borders on anger, though, when it could have been avoided. 

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you for appearing today. I turn to the MRH-90 Taipan crash in the Whitsundays. We remember the aircrew of 6th Aviation Regiment: Capital Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph Laycock, and Corporal Alexander Naggs. Lest we forget. The MRH-90 helicopter crashed into waters around Lindeman Island late Friday night, 28 July 2023—around 10.30 pm, from reports. On 29 July, the search and rescue operation were still looking for missing aircrew and trying to locate the helicopter. At sometime on 29 July the Navy was off on a maritime photoshoot. General Campbell, were there any Australian vessels at the Talisman Sabre 24 maritime photographic exercise on 29 July, 2023; yes or no? 

Gen. Campbell: I haven’t come prepared for that question. I will see whether any of my colleagues can answer, otherwise I will have to take it on notice. 

Senator ROBERTS: I want to be clear, General Campbell. Late on Friday night the helicopter crashed. On Saturday, the next day, it seems that you could have had maritime assets, tasked on a photoshoot, off and away. What vessels were tasked to the Talisman Sabre maritime photographic activities on 29 July, if any were, and why the hell weren’t they tasked to the search and rescue operation? That is what I would like to know. 

Gen. Campbell: We will take it on notice. 

Senator ROBERTS: I asked you in October to give me a schedule of all vessels in the area of operations and exactly when each one was tasked to assist with the search-and-rescue operation. You said in question on notice No. 23: Defence does not comment on the operational tasking of its assets. You are not in the middle of a war. This tasking isn’t sensitive information; it is a peacetime search and rescue operation. Why won’t you answer that? 

Gen. Campbell: I will have to return to that question on notice to understand the background, for me to be able to your question. 

Senator ROBERTS: Were you embarrassed about the ship not being engaged in the search area, but off on a photoshoot? 

Gen. Campbell: That has never crossed my mind. I can get the answers for you, but I know that our people engaged in that exercise were very conscious of how to be of assistance in supporting that downed aircraft and, at that stage, the missing aircrew. 

Senator ROBERTS: In regard to the failure to provide the schedule of vessels, you don’t get to say, ‘I am not answering that question’ to the Senate. It is time you were reminded of that. You have refused to provide information to this committee, and you do not have any public interest immunity claim lodged. You are, therefore, in contempt of this committee. 

CHAIR: Senator Roberts, you may want to withdraw that, unless there is some evidence you are trying to put forward. I suggest you rephrase that line of questioning. 

Senator ROBERTS: Chair, a witness is required to produce to this committee any information or documents that are requested. There is no privacy, security, freedom of information or other legislation that overrides this committee’s constitutional powers to gather evidence. Witnesses are protected from any potential prosecution as a result of their evidence or of producing documents to this committee. If anyone seeks to pressure a witness against producing documents, that is also a contempt. 

CHAIR: I understand that, but it is a matter for the Senate to determine that. You can put forward the case. I ask if you could withdraw the assertion that the general is in contempt, because that would be a matter for the Senate to work out, if we were to go down that path. Please withdraw that aspect. 

Senator ROBERTS: Chair, the general has not provided a public interest immunity claim yet— 

CHAIR: It is not a debatable point. I am asking you to withdraw so we can move on, and you can continue your line of questioning. 

Senator ROBERTS: Okay; I withdraw. 

CHAIR: Thank you. 

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, you are well aware of the procedures around estimates. Witnesses cannot just refuse to answer questions or refuse to hand over information. They must ask you, the minister, to raise a public interest immunity claim. It is up to the Senate whether to accept that answer or insist otherwise. Why are you letting Defence run rampant and refuse to hand over information, without even the courtesy of a public interest immunity claim? 

Senator McAllister: I do not accept the assertion, or that characterisation of the behaviour of Defence. All senators are aware of the standing orders. That is true for the senators on this side of the table, and the senators sitting before us. The CDF has indicated that he is willing to review the answer that has been provided. He has taken your question on notice. Your question went to the grounds on which the information was not provided. He has indicated that he will examine that. You have asked him to do so, and he has taken it on notice. He will come back to you when he has the information.

Senator ROBERTS: I asked you to give me on notice a list of every report or briefing provided to Defence or created internally raising issues with the Taipan helicopter. Your answer was that this would take too many resources to collate together. That sums up the Taipan, doesn’t it? 

Senator McAllister: Again, that question essentially invites speculation on your rhetorical position. If there is a specific question of fact or policy that you wish to address to officials, you should do so. Asking them to speculate about a rhetorical characterisation of a project is not reasonable. 

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, are you aware that Defence had said it would take too many resources to collate a list of every report or briefing provided to Defence or created internally raising issues with the Taipan helicopter? 

Senator McAllister: Is there a particular question you are referring to? 

Senator ROBERTS: Are you aware? 

Senator McAllister: This committee asks many questions on notice, and many answers are provided. Is there a number, or a particular question on notice, for which an answer has been provided in these terms that you can point me to? 

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, I just explained it. 

Senator McAllister: Do you have a number? It is difficult for me to respond if you cannot even tell me which question we are talking about. I am happy to look at it. 

Senator ROBERTS: I’ll get back to you on that one. 

Gen. Campbell: I refer to the question on notice Senator Roberts was referring to, from 25 October, 2023 on page 52 of the Hansard proof. The answer was: ‘There were six Royal Australian Navy warships in the area of operation on the night of the incident. Defence doesn’t comment on the operational tasking of its assets.’ That is correct—we don’t. But I want to reinforce the assurance that every asset that could be of assistance from Australia or from any of our partner nations in that exercise was tasked to be of assistance. 

Senator ROBERTS: General, were any Australian Navy vessels tasked at the same time on a photoshoot? 

Gen. Campbell: That is what I will have to come back to you on. You are talking about the next day, the 29th perhaps. 

Senator ROBERTS: Correct, while the other vessels were engaged in search and rescue. 

Gen. Campbell: I will come back to you on that, Senator. 

CHAIR: We can revisit that, Senator Roberts. 

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Who Will Answer for Defence’s $20 Billion Frigate Blowout?

If you get audited by the Tax Office and you’re missing documents, you could go to jail. The Hunter Frigates program is a $45 billion purchase yet Defence didn’t keep records of key decisions. Will anybody be held accountable for this mess of a program?

It’s been revealed that the cost of nine Frigates has blown out to $65 billion and the government is still proceeding with building three fewer ships for the same price we were supposed to get nine for. Defence is also outsourcing its recruitment drive with a $1.3 billion contract, yet 7 months of recruitment has gone down. The Generals in Defence are leaving us in a huge mess.

Regarding the Arafura Offshore Patrol Boats, why would the Defence department buy a military ship that can land a helicopter on it, but not actually use this feature? It doesn’t make sense to pay $300 million per boat while cutting essential features to save minimal costs.

Would the two heads of Defence, each on $1 million a year, take responsibility for the abysmal Hunter Frigate program? The response appeared to be, “Not my fault”. At four times the Prime Minister’s wage, we deserve better.

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: My first set of questions is about the Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels. Going to the design of those vessels, the Navy website listing the capabilities of SEA1180 does not include a mention of a helicopter. The Brunei version of our offshore patrol vessel has a deck than an 11-tonne helicopter can be landed on. Were any changes made throughout the SEA1180 which downgraded the strength of the helicopter deck? 

Rear Adm. Malcolm: Senator, the requirement for our offshore patrol vessel did not include a helicopter as part of the top-level user requirements. 

Senator ROBERTS: And what is the reason for that? 

Rear Adm. Malcolm: I might ask Chief of Navy if he’d like to speak to that. 

Vice Adm. Hammond: The Arafura was designed for constabulary roles to replace the Armadale-class patrol boats, which do not operate helicopter capability. It was a minimum viable capability off-the-shelf solution to provide that constabulary effect. 

Senator ROBERTS: So the Brunei version would have been upgraded to handle a helicopter? 

Vice Adm. Hammond: That’s reasonable speculation, but I’m not sure, Senator. 

Senator ROBERTS: You did not derate or reduce the strength of the deck; you just wanted the base model? 

Vice Adm. Hammond: I’d characterise it as the Navy did not specify helicopter capability as a requirement. 

Senator ROBERTS: Turning to the $45 billion Hunter-class ship acquisition, Mr Moriarty, Australian taxpayers have already hand over $4 billion, and we still don’t have a boat. At the joint committee inquiry you accepted that there had been design flaws in the process and that records needed to be formalised and recorded. How is it acceptable that, on a $45 billion project, proper records weren’t kept? How did this happen, where were the records and why weren’t they kept? 

Mr Moriarty: Senator, there has been a lot of work done on examining the history of the Hunter-class program, which goes back to 2014. Certainly the ANAO and subsequent internal departmental work identified that some key records were not retained. That is a flaw in our system, and the deputy secretary has been putting in place a number of initiatives to enhance overall compliance with Defence records management policy. There are of course a number of other initiatives which we’ve put in place. 

Senator ROBERTS: Mr Moriarty, during the joint committee inquiry you stated you were not aware that standard procedures were not being followed. How is it possible that you weren’t aware? 

Mr Moriarty: Senator, after I assumed the position of secretary of the Department of Defence the process was already in flight. I delegate authorities to subordinate committees to bring forward work to decision-making committees. The fact that some of what I would regard as appropriate procedures had not been followed was never brought to my attention. 

Senator ROBERTS: Isn’t it something you would make sure of, in a project worth $45 billion? You’re paid more than $1 million a year, as I understand it. General Campbell is paid more than $1 million a year. That’s each of you almost double what the Prime Minister is paid. Between the two of you it’s four times what the Prime Minister is paid. With that amount, surely the Australians that pay you expect you to know what happens in your department. Why don’t you know? 

Mr Moriarty: Senator, there has a great deal of work done to talk about the inadequacies of some aspects of the Hunter procurement, but I think it’s also reasonable, when you delegate authorities to subordinate committees or to capability managers to bring forward, that they will pursue government requirements and procedures and internal Defence procurement procedures. The Defence committee structures that lead ultimately to these investment committee and Defence committees are intended to ensure that I, as the accountable authority, can effectively govern. You have to assume that the authorities below you understand their obligation and will comply with our own procedures and the requirements of in particular the PGPA. 

Senator ROBERTS: Let’s delve a bit deeper then. You blame Defence for not following the proper process of developing advice, tender evaluation and source evaluation for the Hunter frigates, because of an accelerated time frame. Yet the government brought forward process to three years. Do you still maintain that reasoning? The government, as I understand it, accelerated the process. 

Mr Moriarty: It did indeed, Senator. 

Senator ROBERTS: Did the time compression affect the department’s process and the government advice that resulted from it? 

Mr Moriarty: I think the ANAO report and subsequent work done within the department suggested that, yes, had there been more time available to do some of that work, then there would have been more validity. 

Senator ROBERTS: Did Defence ask for more time? 

Mr Moriarty: The government took a decision about the time line it wished to pursue. The government was aware and made aware by this department that pursuing an accelerated time line increased risk. 

Senator ROBERTS: In the inquiry, as I understand it, you said: 

I think we did not seek more time. The government’s time line was very clear, but, as I said, that does not absolve us of the requirement to have made a value-for-money judgement… 

Why? Isn’t it your responsibility to ask for more time if you know accelerating the time line is going to compromise the process? 

Mr Moriarty: I am required to comply with lawful and reasonable directions of the elected government of the day. When the elected government of the day tells me that it wishes to proceed in a certain period of time, I can alert them to risks and risk-mitigation strategies. Government was alerted to the risks of an accelerated time line. 

Senator ROBERTS: You alerted them? 

Mr Moriarty: The department, of which I’m the secretary, alerted the government to the risks of an accelerated time line. 

Senator ROBERTS: You’re also quoted as saying at the inquiry: 

I’d say the government was aware that bringing forward a program of this scale and complexity by three years obviously introduced additional areas of risk. 

I’m wondering if you’re being evasive. You say it’s the government’s fault for speeding up the time line, yet you never provided advice to the government such that it would make you essentially break your own rules around processes. Are you trying to have a bob each way to make sure you have a job later when Hunter falls over? 

Mr Moriarty: The government was dealing with a range of complex pressures. One of them was the need to build and have a continual shipbuilding program in South Australia. In order to do that it wished to hit some milestones in the project decision so that work could get underway. In order for work to get underway it needed to have the department contribute to advice to government by a certain period of time. The department was made very well aware of what the government’s time line was for when it wished to make a decision. 

CHAIR: Senator, I’m not disputing what you you’re saying is in the transcript, but maybe in the future it would be great to get the full context and a printout of that so that other senators and the witnesses can have a look at the context of what was said and asked at the time. 

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you Chair; I will. 

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: Mr Yannopoulos, you outlined a series of measures the department is taking to ensure procedures are followed & records are properly kept. Yet you said at the inquiry on 20 Novr 2023, page 8: 

  • I would be reluctant to give a guarantee that record keeping is fixed. What I can do is update the policy and update the learning. 

I would think it was your and your department’s responsibility to guarantee this does happen. While I take your point from your previous evidence that it’s not easy to guarantee perfect performance across 100,000 people involved in the process, it’s ultimately your job to ensure things run quick properly and such a bureaucratic mess does not happen again. Why won’t you guarantee that the next time the government enters a $45 billion contract, acquisition records will be properly kept, assessment for value for money be made and proper processes followed? 

Mr Yannopoulos: Senator, I’m happy to guarantee for the next $45 billion project that a government will consider we will ensure there is effective recordkeeping. Indeed we are, across all of our major projects. What I was asked at that inquiry was to guarantee there would be no further instances of record-keeping issues, and I just cannot do that. As much as I can update policy, train 23,000 people in a new e-learning and record-keeping practices, we are a large organisation with a lot of staff that join us each year, so it would be silly of me to guarantee we’ll see no recurrence. 

Senator ROBERTS: So who’s going to be held accountable for the mess of the Hunter frigate program? 

Senator Shoebridge: Nobody. 

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, will the government scrap the Hunter frigate program, as One Nation has called for, and arm our Navy with ready-made mature solutions already in the water? Is the government committed to delivering all nine Hunter frigates under the current plans? Do you have no plan? That’ll do for now. 

Senator McAllister: Senator, we spoke this morning about the review of the surface fleet. I’m not sure if you were in the room. 

Senator ROBERTS: No, I wasn’t. 

Senator McAllister: The government’s response to that review is expected in the early part of 2024. I’m not in a position here to pre-empt any of the outcomes of that. More broadly, of course we expect all the procurement across Defence represents value for money for the Australian public. We are in a very challenging strategic environment, and that means we need to use the resources we have well. That is a project that is underway, and we’ve talked quite a lot today about the work that has been going on across the department and across the ADF to make sure that is the case. 

Senator ROBERTS: I have two questions on Adecco. Defence has entered into contract CN3923195 with Adecco Australia for consulting on personnel recruitment. This is a $1.3 billion contract. I can’t recall coming across a bigger contract during my time in parliament. Defence entered into the contract on 27 October 2022. What was Defence’s headcount on that date when the contract started? 

Lt Gen. Fox: That contract was signed on 22 October but did not take operative effect until 1 July this year. 

Senator ROBERTS: What was the headcount then? 

Lt Gen. Fox: In October? 

Senator ROBERTS: Yes. 

Lt Gen. Fox: I’ll have to get that for you from an October headcount time frame. 

Senator ROBERTS: And also when the contract started, please. 

Lt Gen. Fox: As at end of financial year 2022-23 the average funded strength was 58,642. 

Senator ROBERTS: What does funded strength mean? 

Lt Gen. Fox: The department has the average taken over people coming in and out each pay for the average funded strength we have. It’s not a headcount; it is very close to it, but it’s the funded strength. 

Senator ROBERTS: It’s now 2024. What’s the latest headcount for Defence personnel? 

Lt Gen. Fox: Can I answer that again in an AFS construct? 

Senator ROBERTS: Yes. 

Lt Gen. Fox: The average funded strength is 58,427. 

Senator ROBERTS: So you’ve gone down by 215. 

Lt Gen. Fox: Yes, Senator. 

Senator ROBERTS: We’ve had Adecco in place now for seven months, and we’ve gone backwards. 

Lt Gen. Fox: Yes, Senator. 

Senator ROBERTS: And we’re going to pay them $1.3 billion? 

Lt Gen. Fox: That’s for the life of the contract, Senator, but the performance management framework will determine what they are paid in accordance with the performance of the contractor. 

Senator ROBERTS: Could you describe the performance pay provisions? 

Lt Gen. Fox: I’ll defer to my colleague to provide an indication of the performance management framework. 

Major Gen. Stothart: There are a series of performance indicators, performance measures and health indicators for this contract. We are transitioning from a centralised model of recruiting to a decentralised model of recruiting in difficult circumstances, and the three major key performance indicators for this contract are the volume of target achievement, the velocity by which we can take an application and then issue a letter of offer to a candidate and, thirdly, the timeliness and quality of the deliverables we receive from Adecco to ensure we are seeing the business intelligence of their system. The contracts, noting there are some contract-in-confidence measures, are assessed quarterly. There are at-risk amounts tied to the achievements for them to acquire the targets linked to incentive payments, and the value of those payments are contractually in confidence. 

Senator ROBERTS: Are you able to tell us a percentage? 

Major Gen. Stothart: No, I don’t think I can, and I don’t have that with me at the moment. I would need to take that to confirm what I could share. I can talk about the performance measures and the health indicators. But I don’t want to underestimate the scale of the difficulty of the transition from a model that, over a long period of time, was not delivering the volume or the velocity we needed in our recruiting and the difficult shift to a new model that we still have confidence will deliver, with some adjustments, what we need. It is a difficult process we’ve asked Adecco to go through. They’ve had to pick up a model that was not theirs, the previous contract arrangement which the Commonwealth Defence Force recruiting was running, and shift it through a transition period to get to their model that we selected as the preferred model of recruiting through that securement process. 

Senator ROBERTS: Excuse me, are you designing the process and they’re implementing it, or are they involved in the designing too? 

Major Gen. Stothart: I could defer to chief of personnel for a detailed answer on that question, Senator. 

Lt Gen. Fox: For the model that was selected the Commonwealth went out to tender for innovation in delivering volume, the speed of recruiting and the care of candidates. We had a number of tenderers come in, there was a competitive tender evaluation process and Adecco’s model, data and solution were evaluated to be the best in that period of time against the tenders Defence was requiring in volume, care and speed of recruiting. 

Senator ROBERTS: Major General, you mentioned there’s a need for a dramatically increased volume—or velocity, I think was your word. Why is that? Is that because retention is decreasing? 

Major Gen. Stothart: Senator, there are a various number of reasons. We need to achieve our targets more consistently than we’ve done previously, and the speed it takes us to conduct our recruitment processes needs to be much shorter. We know the target demographics of young and not-so-young Australians that may have some propensity to join the ADF have more choices around employment, study and travel now than they’ve had previously, and speed of offer to those candidates is key. 

Senator ROBERTS: What is the attrition in the armed forces at the moment? 

Lt Gen. Fox: At 1 January it was 10.1 per cent. CDF mentioned this morning in his opening statement that as at 1 February it’s 10 per cent. 

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The UN-WEF Menu Plan for the West

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The UN-WEF menu plan for the West is about power over the necessities of life — food, energy and water. This unelected socialist bureaucracy, with their loyalty directed to foreign power centres, are busy punishing you and the Australian economy using this made-up concept of a carbon footprint.

The truth is, our agricultural footprint in Australia does not contribute to global “emissions” — not that this would be a problem anyway. Australia has so many trees, grass and crops that every atom of CO2 and methane we produce is re-absorbed into the environment, producing higher growth and heathier soils.

During question time, I asked Senator Wong to provide the figures used to justify the Albanese Government’s nation-killing environmental policies. No sensible answer was received. This debate must be about science and data, not scare campaigns and hubris.

The war on farming is not about the environment, it’s about control. It creates a false sense of food scarcity to make lab-grown, food-like substances a profitable industry for the predatory billionaires.

One Nation will always stand up for Australia’s farmers and rejects the UN-WEF goals of food supply control.

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It’ll All Come Out in the Wash

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The World Economic Forum seeks control over the most mundane aspects of our lives, even how often you wash your jeans. While the temptation is to laugh at the hubris of these people, there is a genuinely evil agenda in place that theatre around frequency of washing is designed to distract us from.

Today I spoke about the interference of the globalist billionaires in our food production. This is disturbing. The campaign against farming is really a campaign against one of the mainstays of life. It is a campaign about control through a false scarcity of food.

The UN and the WEF seek control not only over food production, but energy and ultimately, global finance. It’s time the Australian parliament stands up for farmers and the rural communities. After all, no farmers no food. Only bugs and lab-grown ‘meat’.

Transcript

When the World Economic Forum launched their social media campaign in 2018 carrying the slogan, ‘You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy,’ I thought that finally the predatory billionaires who try to run the world had shown their hand. The public could finally see their fate if the World Economic Forum are allowed to succeed. That didn’t happen. The media, who have the same owners as the World Economic Forum, persisted with calling the World Economic Forum’s evil agenda ‘a conspiracy theory’. Even in this place there are only a handful of senators with the courage to call out the agenda for what it is: economic exploitation and social control. 

Over the break, the World Economic Forum revealed another aspect of their plan and they launched a campaign against laundry. Yes, really—laundry! They said jeans should not be washed more than once a month and most other clothes washed once a week. You will wear dirty clothes and be smelly and happy, apparently.

The temptation is to laugh at their desire to control even mundane aspects of our lives, yet the truth is much more frightening than that. The World Economic Forum have now turned their evil agenda to food.

The campaign against farming is really a campaign against one of the necessities of life—food. Predatory, parasitic billionaires, owning near urban intensive production facilities, are producing food-like substances for the masses, forcing the public into acceptance of the World Economic Forum’s fake global warming scam. These are their own stated motives: control food and control people. Whoever controls the food supply controls the people. Whoever controls the energy can control whole continents. Whoever controls money can control the whole world. The World Economic Forum and the predatory billionaires they represent are currently trying to do all three.

The Greens, Labor and the globalist Liberals will, of course, support the World Economic Forum. It is time the Australian parliament stood up for farmers and rural communities and for all Australians. 

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Childcare Costs Out of Control

Report from late January: The price of something will always go up if the government subsidises it. Childcare is another example of this.

Australian families are still struggling to access and afford childcare despite the Albanese government’s promises. Childcare fees have grown more than inflation and wages since subsidies were introduced.

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Damn the Economy – Net Zero at All Cost!

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I questioned the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment & Water (DCCEEW) about a recent report from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO). The report was critical of the department.

The report from ANAO on Governance of Climate Change Commitments states that the DCCEEW CANNOT demonstrate the extent to which specific policies and programs have contributed, or are expected to contribute towards emissions reduction.

We are turning our entire economy upside down to chase this net-zero lunacy and no one can even say if it’s going to do anything.

Even though it was reported that the department agreed with all five ANAO recommendations, the Minister and staff, in response to my estimates’ questioning, said that they do not agree with ANAO’s findings and read out a long list of projections and guestimates.

I asked again for evidence of human-induced climate change and was told the government is committed to the United Nations 2050 Net Zero. I will continue asking about a cost-benefit analysis on Net-Zero, which appears not to exist. And finally, I will request how much this new Labor Department for Climate Change is going to cost the Australian taxpayer.

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