I vaguely recall a story in one of the Army magazines (2 years ago?) about snipers which suggested the new sniper rifles would be issued to platoons. Did the story mean to say recon platoons, or are there snipers in line platoons also?
I think what you are referring to is the changes in structure of Australian infantry battalions under the Army 2012 concept. Under this structure each battalion will be reduced in size to 3 rifle companies, plus the existing support company (with possible changes in structure to the Mortar and DFSW platoons), admin company and BHQ.
The remaining rifle company's will then be expanded in size with each platoon retaining it's normal sections, but gaining an additional "maneuvre support team", of 2x fire teams of 4 soldiers each, with the teams equipped with a 40mm AGL (or a light cannon), plus Carl Gustav MRAAW's, MAG-58 GPMG's and a "Marksmans rifle", plus a support vehicle to carry the weapons and ammunition.
The vehicle is to be appropriately sized so as to be capable of being carried within an MRH-90 helicopter, indicating that a Polaris Quad bike or 6x6 wheeled bike, plus trailer is the type of capability being sought (similar to 4RAR/SASR styled vehicles).
The capabilities to be acquired for this project are to be tendered for under Land-40 Phase 2 and should provide a high level of firepower for each platoon.
Such teams will be capable of supporting their respective platoon individually or combining to support company level operations.
There are few details as yet about the training the soldiers will undertake to serve within the MST's, but most of the soldiers operating the "marksman's rifles" probably won't be Sniper qualified, but undertake some sort of "halfway" course.
The way Land-40 reads to me is that Army is keen for an SR-25 styled 7.62mm semi-auto "accurised" rifle, rather than a specialist sniper rifle, (like SR-98) but we'll have to wait and see...
I don't consider 15:1 casualty rates a victory.