ADJOURNMENT
Senator COLLINS (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (20:46): On 2 July 2026, the Senate passed an order to produce the tender documents for the Base Services Transformation Program and the executed contracts by 3 August. The Base Services Transformation Program is the name given by Defence bureaucrats for the $14 billion of contracts relating to the management of the defence estate.
It includes things like garrison services, catering and project management—many of the capabilities that Defence used to do themselves, except now we outsource it to multinationals and it costs more. Today, there are a lot of civilian contractors squeezing a lot of money out of Defence, while so many of our uniformed personnel are being denied the resources they need to train for war.
The tender documents I requested from the Department of Defence were already provided to the bidders for the base services contracts, and the Defence website identifies 15 contracts being signed. Anyone bidding on these contracts should have been given the same information, but, on 30 July, Defence Minister Richard Marles wrote to the President of the Senate saying, 'There are a considerable number of documents that have been potentially captured by this order and further time is needed to undertake a review.' We've seen before what it means when Minister Marles undertakes a review.
He finds a couple of friendlies, writes the reports for them and pays them very well to sign their names. When it comes to cooking up reviews, Defence Minister Marles is the master chef. Just look at the independent Defence Estate Audit.
The authors of the so-called independent audit weren't auditors and they weren't independent. We know that because the auditors admitted it themselves. But, when asked on notice, they refused to give us their declarations of conflicts of interest.
This is how the Labor government works. They're very happy to spend your money, but they don't like anyone looking too closely at how the money is spent. I know that Defence is being taken for a ride with these contracts, and we are going to put a spotlight on it.
If you are ripping off Defence, you're on notice. Our defence budget should be for defence capability, not corporate opportunity. We must start and trust in our soldiers, sailors and pilots to use their skills and maintain their own bases and equipment.
The argument that taking these basic tasks away from our troops gives them more time to focus on their war-fighting skills is a corporate invention. Empowering our troops to complete basic tasks, like changing a light bulb, is not going to mean they have no time to go to the range for a shoot, but it will mean that Defence has more money for rounds. The more we outsource the most basic of functions on a base, the more we lose our best troops.
I've heard it firsthand. Hundreds of people are writing to me explaining how they've quit the forces because they're not allowed to do the most basic of tasks. They've quit because it's fundamentally demeaning and it brings about skill atrophy.
Now we have the situation where qualified sparkies trained by the Army are escorting private contractors to a light bulb that needs changing. Our best troops are packing up and leaving to find a job where they can do the work that they're trained to do. More so, outsourcing basic functions of defence management is dangerous.
When we enter into a conflict, who is going to man the gates? That we don't even allow our defence members to provide security on their own bases is a gross failure of the system. If conflict arises, where will they find the light bulbs?
Which private contractor will come onto a base to change a dead bulb when Australia is under attack? They won't, of course. Our enlisted men and women would do it for themselves.