The Department of Defence has imposed at short notice a moratorium on contracting of recently separated Defence personnel by defence industry.
The moratorium came into effect on 7 August and in a joint directive document sighted by ADM, Chief of Defence Force General Angus Campbell and Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty have directed that any Australian Public Service (APS) or full- or part-time members of the ADF (SERCAT 6 & 7) who have separated in the past 12 months can only be contracted by defence industry “by exception”.
The moratorium does not however affect ‘above the line’ contracts that came into effect before 7 August. These contracts involve individuals who are engaged to deliver services previously provided by the APS.
Defence says the reason for this moratorium is its commitment to reduce its reliance on contractors and consultants and restore the size and capability of the APS – which has been decimated by years of cut-backs.
Therefore, the moratorium affects ADF SERCAT 6 & 7 and APS employees looking to return to Defence as an ‘above the line’ contractor for the first year of their separation.
There are caveats however, which excludes members of the Reserves or individuals who have left the ADF or APS for medical reasons.
Other exemptions can be granted for “compassionate, or special measures”, commercial necessity, Defence capability needs, or pre-existing negotiations.
CEO of the Australian Industry Defence Network (AIDN) Brent Clark said that his organisation has been in discussions with Defence over the past few days.
“I’m not aware of any consultation with Defence industry at all and, if there was consultation, it wasn’t with any of the small and medium enterprise community. The SMEs are horribly affected by this,” Clark said when contacted by ADM for comment.
“I can understand that CASG wants to bring more activities back into the Department, but we also need to be very mindful of the fact that there has been a trend to outsource everything over many, many years – and businesses have sprung up based on that need.
“You can’t overnight bring in a policy to try and reverse that, because you end up crippling multiple businesses.”