It seems to me, that this government's priority is definitely not the ADF. Everything is being delayed as long as possible. I'm surprised they didn't do a review on the rotary force. If Canberra asked the US for Blackhawks asap, we would get them asap. They are in no rush. The AUKUS subs are costing us, and the G.O.D is avoiding spending money today, more interested in getting the tax cuts through, so average Joe stops hating on them.
It depends what lens you look through. It could be argued that those who promise, but don't fund defence are worse.
Can't go into too much detail but if defence were a company the previous management would be guilty of operating while insolvent.
The books have been cooked with a multitude of projects deliberately under budgeted. If you recall, this is the exact situation that led to the failures that resulted in the Rizzo review. There were simply not the resources budgeted to do the work required, hence too much of the work did not get done.
I'm trying very hard not to get political, but this sort of underestimating cost, and over commuting without factoring in required resouses, occur more under one side than the other.
Just as layingvup or retiring, capability that is muddling along is the characteristic of the other side.
It's the different mind sets of the two sides, one believe in having, even a flawed capability sort of alegedly available, that can be upgraded, reconditioned or repaired when needed. The other side is more of the view if it's not actually working properly it should not be used and the money saved used for fixing higher priorities.