With the quarantining of defence from the financial pain of the razor gang, the obligation on the Government to ensure sound financial management and accountability has been raised.

Deloitte Defence Partner, Dennis Goldner, said the Government had stayed true to its election campaign promise of supporting the Australian Defence Force in a climate of global turmoil – Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and Solomon Island etc.

“The budget commits to 3% real growth of Defence’s funding base to 2015-16 and has in fact extended this guarantee by a further two years.

“In the meantime, the Government is awaiting the White Paper to define Australia’s future Defence capability requirements and has commissioned an audit of the Defence budget to ensure best use of growing expenditure in this area.

“At the same time, the Mortimer Review will examine how the Defence Materiel Organisation(DMO) can optimise procurement of materiel.

“So while it is ‘business as usual’ in the sense that the Federal Government is continuing the Coalition’s strong commitment to Defence, we are seeing tighter disciplines in controlling the vast expenditure that goes to this sector and, through the production of a new White Paper, some timely crystal ball gazing into our future capability needs,” Mr Goldner said.