The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence Budget Brief 2009-2010 (2009) By ASPI
 
This ASPI report, prepared by Dr Mark Thomson, gives interested readers greater access to the complex workings of the Defence Budget and promotes informed debate on Defence budget issues.
 
As the first budget after a new Defence White Paper, there is a glaring absence of substantive information on funding, investment and reform.
 
The best that can be said is that the budget is consistent with a White Paper that's silent on when anything will occur or what things will cost.
 
All we are offered is a vision of what the defence force will look like in 2030.
 
We don't know when new capability will arrive.
 
We don't know when old capability will be fixed.
 
We have minimal information on how $20 billion of savings will be accomplished, and not much more on how the money will be spent.
 
We don't know how much capital investment has been delayed, or when it has been delayed to.
 
And from a funding model extending 21 years into the future, we are only given a glimpse of the next four years.
 
But relax; we are going to have 12 submarines sometime after 2030.
 
Soft Cover
226 pages
In Good Condition