iscover
The US Department of Defense has recently announced it will undertake an evolving plan to make military projects, funding and reporting more transparent.
You’re not alone if you’ve heard that statement and immediately thought of our own closed-door Australian Department of Defence and it’s circled wagons of secrecy.
The information wasteland is traditionally deafening outside the halls of power in Canberra.
Indeed, ask any defence-related journalist and you’ll gladly be regaled with tales of Australia’s long-running information distribution tradition that “less is more, and none is better than less”.
Watch any Senate estimates on defence and it will be clearly evident that Defence and the Australian Defence Force would rather cover their own successes in a mountain of bureaucracy alongside their hidden failures rather than risking having to publicly accept accountability for even minor screw-ups.
Turning this strategy on its head, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has recently announced that the US Department of Defence will strive to be accountable to its taxpayers and personnel will be then accountable to the core missions of the department.
A challenging task as the Pentagon has, so far, failed to pass its annual audit for seven years in a row, since the Department of Defense became required to undergo yearly audits in 2018.
“What I want to be is transparent with this building and everyone who serves here, say the same thing in public that we say in private,” Hegseth said during a town hall at the Pentagon on 7 February this year.
“That includes a Pentagon audit … We are going to focus heavily to ensure that at a bare minimum by the end of four years, the Pentagon passes a clean audit.
“The American taxpayers deserve that. They deserve to know where their US$850 billion go, how it’s spent and make sure it’s spent wisely.
“It used to be that if you called for an audit, somehow you were undermining the department. I believe the exact opposite.
“I believe we are accountable for every dollar we spend and every dollar of waste we find or redundancy is a dollar we can invest somewhere else, as President Trump has committed, directly to rebuilding our nation’s military. So, rebuilding our military is key.”
Further to this aim, the US DOD recently launched a weekly video update series to keep the public and personnel informed as well as convey transparency on the part of the DOD.
Hegseth has also championed for a complete reassessment of personnel based on a merit-based system.
“You, the American people, work really hard to support the men and women in uniform who keep our country safe. We, in turn, owe you transparency on what we’re doing to accomplish our core mission, which is securing the nation and spending your taxpayer dollars wisely,” he said during an on-camera address from the Pentagon on 20 February.
“We’re going to shoot straight with you about why we’re making the decisions that we’re making here. First and foremost, as we’re executing as quickly as possible the priorities of President Donald Trump.
“Achieving peace through strength, restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military and re-establishing deterrence. Those are no-brainers.
“Now, the legacy media has a different agenda. Time after time, the media distorts good news stories or often just gets them flat wrong. In many or most cases, they have an agenda. Other times they are just lazy, as they often are, and they don’t take time to understand the facts.
“So when we make decisions that are misreported in the media, we’re going to try to get to you as quickly as possible … So you understand the real thought process behind them and then how they relate to our core mission of fighting, winning or deterring war.
“With DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), we’re focusing as much as we can on headquarters and fat and redundancies and top line stuff that allows us to reinvest elsewhere. And finding those efficiencies is how we save taxpayer dollars.
“Taxpayers deserve to have us take a really thorough look at our workforce top to bottom to see where we can find and eliminate redundancies … Those who we need, the best and brightest, are going to stay. Those who are underperformers won’t.
“We’re motivated to rebuild the most capable military in the world … In the process, we want to communicate with you directly rather than through the filter of media outlets … To get you real info in real time and helping you understand what is really going on in the department. Our warfighters and taxpayers deserve no less than that. We’re not going to get everything perfect, but we’re going to do it earnestly.”
Even if you’re significantly morally opposed to US President Donald Trump’s administration and its bombastic methods, imagine what such government and military efficiency investigations would find in our own ranks?
You’ve all heard the stories of “defence projects blowing out by millions” (billions in some cases), the revolving door of staff working on contracts then accepting jobs with the contract winner, decisions made for pride or voter favour rather than strategic substance. It’s common knowledge at this point.
We already know that the number of Australian Defence Force flag officers has almost doubled since 2003 from 119 to 219, according to data published by (shudder) the Greens in 2023.
That’s a star level officer for every 260 Australian full-time uniformed members, compared to a star-ranked officer for every 1,500 other officers and enlisted members in the US military or the same for 1,200 personnel in the UK military.
Now I’m not implying that the entire military structure should be disbanded, but what is the harm in moving to a more transparent and primarily merit-based personnel system for Defence and the ADF?
Even our not-so-distant neighbours across the pond are looking at a crackdown on inefficient government process in New Zealand.
Judith Collins, NZ Attorney-General, Minister of Defence and Minister for Digitising Government, said New Zealand is seeking the best service possible for taxpayers.
“In the six years from 2017 to 2023, the number of people employed in the core public service grew 34 per cent to 63,117 full-time equivalent employees. Total salary costs for this core public service workforce grew a staggering 72 per cent to about $6.1 billion a year over the same period. We simply do not have sufficient taxpayers to support that kind of growth,” she said during an address to public service leaders on 11 February this year.
“We do not have sufficient economic growth to support that level of public spending … Taxpayers pay our wages, and it is the New Zealand taxpayers that we serve. They want to know we are spending their money in ways that are timely and cost-effective.
“Serving the public must always be our top priority.
“For me, that means doing the basics well and sticking to core business. It means being competent at what you do, upholding political neutrality and delivering free and frank advice, being efficient with taxpayers’ money, being corruption-free and – above all – delivering results for the people we serve.
“Keeping it simple is also being efficient and respectful with the use of taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers trust us to use their resources wisely, and we cannot, in the fog of daily pressures and challenges, lose sight of that.
“Here’s a simple question I would urge you and your staff to ask themselves: if this was my money, would I spend it this way? This is the simple question that I ask myself when I am making funding decisions. It’s what I need you to do and to enforce.
“Think of the sharemilker up at the crack of dawn every day. Think of the aged care worker doing their best to give our elderly the care and respect they deserve in their twilight years. Think of the bus driver. The taxi driver. The truck driver.
“All these people want – and deserve – to know that their money is being spent in a way that delivers the services they need in the best way possible. They want results. They don’t want flow charts, frameworks, road maps, or bubble diagrams.
“Public servants who speak truth to power by telling ministers their pet policy ideas are crazy and unworkable don’t get far. But neither do public servants who nod along and promise to deliver the undeliverable. That is a betrayal of the responsibilities of a public servant and it results in policy disaster.
“Ministers do want free and frank advice. Tell us how we can implement our priorities and policies. Tell us how we can improve our policies. Tell us how we can improve outcomes for individuals, families and communities. Tell us when intervention is necessary. And tell us when to stop or change a policy.
“The work you do is vital. New Zealanders depend on it, and on our ability to drive the change required. We have to deliver results. There simply is no other option.
“New Zealanders should be treated as though they are valued customers with options. That’s what we need to deliver.”
Final thoughts
If the US can do it, why can’t Australia? An efficiency review is long overdue.
