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| David Johnston (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By NIGEL PITTAWAY
CANBERRA — Australia’s newly elected defense minister, Sen. David Johnston, says that his government will not cut defense spending further and will work to return it to 2 percent of GDP over the next 10 years.
That’s good news, he said, for the Australian defense industry, which has seen minimal levels of work flowing to them in the last two or three years. Johnston has also pledged to deliver a new defense white paper, defense capability plan [DCP] and industry policy statement suite within 18 months of the coalition government gaining office in September.
“I’ve promised those within 18 months, but I’m looking to underpromise and overdeliver,” Johnston said in a recent interview at his Parliament House office here. “I’d love to be in a position to put them all on the table mid to late next year. The white paper will include an industry policy and a defense capability plan, costed, relevant and cohesive. And if we can achieve that in accord with our white paper aspirations within 18 months of election, we will have gone a long way towards creating a better environment for a relationship to flourish between industry and Defence.”
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