The Age reported on the weekend that former senior defence official Allan Behm had been appointed Chief of Staff to Greg Combet, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science. The Age says he was recruited 'to help oversee the Australian Defence Force's massive re-equipment program and the search to save $20 billion to pay for it all.'
It makes this post he wrote for The Interpreter two weeks ago read rather like a job application. Behm said the savings were deliverable, but:
...it will require more than hard work: it will require strong and determined leadership, complete alignment within the senior hierarchy, governance arrangements that identify where accountabilities reside, and a rejection of the culture of 'entitlement' that affects so many parts of the Defence organisation.
Get ready, Defence, it could be a bumpy ride ahead, and if the ABC's Barrie Cassidy is right, it will be a long one too. Behm could move with his new boss to the Defence portfolio after the next election.