In a first for an ADM Event, the 9th annual Northern Australian Defence Summit was purely virtual this year, allowing a greater number of delegates to take part. Chaired by Sitzler’s Defence lead Jason Meizio, the event gathered a range of speakers from around the nation.
Opened by NT Chief Minister Michael Gunnar, both the geostrategic importance of Australia’s northern approaches and the large amount of investment going into the region by both the ADF alongside the US and Singapore were covered.
The infrastructure build in Australia’s north is a long term multibillion-dollar effort, with remediation, upgrade and new build efforts to support joint and single nation training objectives. Under both the US Force Posture Initiative (USFPI) and Australia-Singapore Military Training Initiative (ASMTI), work has begun on many fronts with some key milestones due in the coming 12 months. In fact, the USPFI is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year.
“As attention turns to the north, the Territory is taking our place as an exemplar of national resilience,” Gunnar said. “You can't live in Darwin without being aware of strategic risk and opportunity.”
Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price was also encouraging businesses to “maximise your opportunities that will come from our massive investment in northern Australia” as the announcement for the Managing Contractor for the $800 million new Greenvale build in north Queensland is imminent. The program is the training centrepiece of the ASMTI training area located near Greenvale. The existing Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Central Queensland is being expanded and a new training area is being established near Greenvale in North Queensland. These training areas will be owned and managed by the Australian Government.
"The key part of our workforce is actually industry,” Steve Grzeskowiak, Deputy Secretary of Estate and Infrastructure Group (E&IG) said. “The industry workforce is far bigger than our internal workforce – 8,500 people coming onto bases every day, and that's not including people involved in major construction."
Colonel Leonard Rouwhorst Director North – Capital Facilities & Infrastructure at E&IG went through an impressive list of programs in the NT alone.
“We are investing over $360 million in the NT alone this year, more than a 50 per cent increase from last year. This is set to increase further, with $665 million forecast to be spent each year for the next three years,” COL Rouwhorst said.
Also on the capability front, Captain Anthony Savage, Director OPV SPO and Transition Maritime Systems Division for RAN went through how the Plan Galileo approach to regional maintenance centres (RMCs) across the north are progressing. The Arafura class OPVs are the pilot program for the approach but elements of the framework are already being applied across the top of the nation.
“We are using demand modelling, standardisation of contracts and systems, incentives, pre-qualification of subcontractors for specific tasks, and longer term contracts to improve engagement with industry," CAPT Savage said.
Captain Savage has also been impressed with how the various sustainment companies in these areas around Townsville and Cairns in particular have gone above and beyond during a challenging 2020.
The NT Government’s Defence and National Security advisor Professor Alan Dupont gave an excellent overview of his new role and how the NT government is working with numerous parties to leverage their geographic and economic advantages.
Giving the uniformed perspective on the ground, Colonel John Papalitsas, Commander Regional Force Surveillance Group (RSFG – check out the video link for a fantastic overview of the Group), outlined how the Group has quadrupled their efforts in 2020 compared to the previous year under a range of activities.
"When the biosecurity zones went down, about a third of our workforce was unable to be employed,” COL Papalitsas explained. “We needed to do more with fewer of our people. I can only thank them for their service and dedication."
Colonel Papalitsas has also been dual hatted for most of the year, co-running the state response to COVID including everything from border crossings and quarantine through to managing how to work with international parties like the US Marine force rotation. To top it off, a new training centre that has tripled its capacity with the modularisation of courses and partnership with education providers will be opened by the Chief of Army at the end of November. Colonel Papalitsas is understandably proud of his personnel that work so closely with indigenous communities, but will be moving on at the end of the year to a new posting.
Dr Malcolm Davis of ASPI highlighted the growing importance of the space domain and advocated for a sovereign Australian responsive space launch capability.
Ian Irving, CEO of the Naval Shipbuilding College, outlined their growing national network of training providers and efforts to attract workers from adjacent industries.
ADM would like to thank our sponsors and partners in Sitzler, Team Downer and the NT Government for their support in helping bring this event together.