<!–
<!–
<!– <!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has continued his ongoing battle with the Australian Defense Force, saying there are “culture issues within its senior leadership”.
Tensions with the Department of Defense and ADF senior leadership first came to light two weeks ago, when Marles was forced to address rumors that he is at odds with senior officials.
At a closed-door meeting late last year, he reportedly laid down the law on more than two dozen military chiefs and bureaucrats, including Defense Secretary Greg Moriarty and Defense Forces Chief Angus Campbell.
“What we need to see in terms of the leadership of the Australian Defense Force and the Department of Defense – and I don’t just mean the two leaders (Mr Moriarty and General Campbell) – but the broader leadership is that everything that what we do is done with excellence,” Marles told Sky News on Sunday.
“I think there are culture issues within the senior management and broader leadership of the ADF and the department that need to be challenged.”
Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has continued his ongoing battle with the Australian Defense Force, saying there are “culture issues within its senior leadership”. ADF personnel are pictured at Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane.
He said advice given to him and the Government must be “timely (and) accurate”.
“We expect from ourselves the same amount of excellence that we would expect from someone who is in the infantry or someone who maintains an aircraft where there is excellence and total competence.”
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Marle’s comments appeared to be a “public vote of no confidence in her own department and the military leadership of our defense forces”.
“That’s deeply disturbing,” Mr Paterson told Sky. “If you have confidence in them, you shouldn’t publicly undermine them by saying that.”
But Marles said he had had “full collaboration from both the Secretary of Defense and the CDF (Chief of the Defense Forces).
“There is an issue around culture and we should be looking to have a culture of absolute excellence and that is the point I have made.”
The minister said morale within Defense had been damaged by the three previous terms of the coalition government, which had seven different ministers in nine years and made many spending announcements which Marles said were not supported by the funds to pay for them.
“When you go out and make all these fanciful announcements, worth $45 billion, and there’s no money behind them, it’s obviously going to have an impact on morale. And it does.
“I mean, leaving the country with the oldest surface fleet sailing since the end of World War II, which is what the previous government did, that will affect morale,” he said.
Marles said that as incoming Defense Minister he inherited “those issues within the ADF and within the department”.
And I can understand how that has happened. However, in the future we must address that culture.”
Pictured are Secretary of the Department of Defense Greg Moriarty (left) and Chief of the Defense Forces General Angus Campbell (right).
Two weeks ago, when Marles (pictured) was forced to address rumors that he was at odds with senior officials.
He acknowledged that the Government has to play an important role in changing culture and part of that is being “very clear about where the money comes from.”
The minister said that the Albanian government will not “do the same thing as the previous government (did) and we intend to have coherence in the leadership of the government.”
Marles said the ADF has to address the issue of “morale and make sure there is excellence in everything that is done”.
He added that he was “surprised that the opposition considered this a controversial proposal.”