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Page 8 Senate Wednesday, 1 March 2017 Air Chief Marshal Binskin: Thank you, Chair. I would like to give an overview of operations around the globe at the moment. Firstly, our operations in Iraq are currently focused on supporting the Iraqi security forces as they continue their offensive to regain control of the city of Mosul. In late January, Prime Minister Abadi declared east Mosul had been fully liberated. On 19 February he announced the start of Iraq's campaign to retake west Mosul. Over the past week the Iraqis have recaptured a number of strategic positions, including Ghazlani military base and Mosul Airport, with support from coalition nations, including Australian special forces advisers and the Air Task Group. I had the opportunity to join the Air Task Group during a recent mission in support of the Mosul operations. Flying over Iraq, observing the FA18 Hornets, find the targeting processes as well as monitoring the interaction between coalition aircraft and ground forces, reinforced the complexity of the battle space and the excellent work our people are doing at all levels of operations against Daesh. In numeric terms, to date the Wedgetail has completed 319 airborne command and control sorties while the KC30 tanker has offloaded an impressive 33,000,000 kilograms of fuel to Australian and coalition aircraft since Operation Okra commenced in October 2014. Our Hornet aircraft have conducted more than 2,100 sorties over Iraq and Syria, including those in support of the Mosul offensive, which began last October. During the Mosul offensive, our Hornets have struck over 130 targets around Mosul, including Daesh fighting positions, IED factories, weapons storage facilities and a tunnel system used to conceal and move both weapons and fighters. I also spent some time with the Australian Special Operations Task Group, including the remotely based Joint Terminal Attack Controllers who have been highly effective in supporting Iraqi ground forces. Working closely with other coalition advise and assist teams, they have coordinated over 450 strikes that have allowed the Iraqi counterterrorism service to maintain its momentum in the Mosul offensive. When the counterterrorism service has suffered casualties, Australian special forces medics have helped provide critical combat first aid to their wounded Iraqi counterparts. This support has not only saved lives, it has strengthened the relationship between our soldiers and the Iraqi soldiers. The counterterrorism service is also ably supported by Iraq's regular security forces, many of whom have trained under Task Group Taji. As the combined Australian and New Zealand building partner capacity mission approaches the two year mark, successive rotations have trained in excess of 19,000 Iraqi soldiers and, more recently, federal police. When I visited them in January, a number of units that had trained with Task Group Taji before had recently returned for further instruction. Battle hardened but more confident in their own capability, these soldiers have developed a special relationship with their Australian trainers. Senators, that rapport and respect for Australian Defence Force personnel is echoed across all our operations in the Middle East region. Our people are doing an excellent job delivering exactly what government has asked us to do. Everyone I met, from the technicians maintaining our aircraft to the intelligence and legal offices providing critical support through to the Australians who are engaged at the technical level, understand the importance of that mission and are proud of the work they are doing to disrupt, degrade and ultimately support the defeat of Daesh. I know that that sentiment will be repeated later this year when I meet the ADF personnel training, advising and assisting the national security and defence forces in Afghanistan in their fight against the Taliban. Australia remains one of the largest non-NATO contributors to the resolute support mission in Afghanistan. Although this is a non-combat training mission, our ongoing assistance has seen the Afghan forces continue to mature. Despite the persistent threat from insurgent and terrorist groups, local security forces have demonstrated their ability to hold territory, retaining control of the country's major population centres, including Tarin Kot. Afghanistan's future security, however, will depend on the government's ability to raise, train and sustain its defence and security forces. The Afghan National Army officer academy outside of Kabul is an integral part of forward planning and so are the ADF trainers and advisers who are working with the next generation of Afghan military leaders. Since it was established in 2013, around 2,000 army officers have successfully completed military training at the academy. As you are aware, there is a third arm supporting our training missions and strike operations in the Middle East, and that is our maritime contribution. The Royal Australian Navy is one of 31 nations patrolling more than 3.2 million square miles of ocean as part of the combined maritime force maintaining security and stability in international waters. HMAS Arunta is currently on a nine-month deployment conducting counter-piracy and counter-narcotics operations to cut off major sources of funding for terrorist and criminal organisations. Arunta is the 64th Royal Australian Navy vessel to conduct this mission. Since January 2014, Australian ships have seized and destroyed illegal narcotics worth an estimated $2.68 billion. FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
Wednesday, 1 March 2017 Senate Page 9 Senators, our contribution to the Middle East region accounts for approximately 70 per cent of all ADF personnel currently deployed on operations. Importantly, today newly promoted Major General Simon Stuart takes over as force commander overseeing the multinational peacekeeping observer force in the Sinai Peninsula. He is only the second Australian to command the multinational force and observers since the mission began 30 years ago. The remainder of our personnel are undertaking important work on a range of operations at home and abroad, including in South Sudan. In our immediate region, the interagency relationships established on border protection operations have allowed the ADF, Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force to successfully conduct a number of joint counter narcotic operations. Using the same skills as our boarding parties in the Middle East, sailors in Australian navy ships Newcastle, Adelaide and Bathurst have intercepted shipments of cocaine and methamphetamines with the combined street value of over $426 million, including the largest ever cocaine bust, which prevented 1.4 tonnes of cocaine hitting our streets. Our ability to support these joint operations in support of whole-of-government outcomes demonstrate the ADF's agility and our interoperability. We pride ourselves on being able to complete our mission, whatever the task we are asked to perform and wherever that may be. CHAIR: CDF, I will ask you to table that report. Secretary, you have an opening statement? Mr Richardson: I would like to say a few words about the department in overall terms and also in particular about the work of public servants in Defence. In respect of the APS in Defence, it is worth noting that over 10 per cent of them work in the intelligence agencies on counterterrorism support to ADF operations and other activities. Around 10 per cent of public servants in Defence are in contract and procurement management and over 20 per cent of the APS in Defence are scientists, engineers and also technical. Other public servants in Defence work on policy. There are doctors, psychologists, social workers, estate base and infrastructure managers, project managers, they work on ICT, personnel, finance and security. So the work of public servants in Defence is diverse. We have completed the downsizing of the Defence APS. To put that in perspective, since the downsizing began, in the four years following the commencement of the downsizing in late 2012, the full-time staff equivalent of public servants in Defence has gone from 22,300 to under 17,200. That is a reduction of over 22 per cent. We are now building the APS back to its ceiling of 18,200. We deliberately took it down below the ceiling because we need to have a different workforce mix to what we had previously, consistent with the white paper and other demands on the department. In particular, the beneficiaries of the build back will be in the ship building area and in the cyber area. The Australian Signals Directorate will grow by around 350 over the next three years. That is a part of the organisation which is important to the government overall and an important part of the intelligence community. It is a part of the department that has a different remuneration structure to other parts of Defence. For quite some time people in ASD with particular skills have been paid more than their APS equivalents so as to compete with the demands on people with those skills outside of government. About three months ago I approved a special arrangement whereby a limited number of people in ASD with selected skills can receive up to 40 per cent more than their APS equivalents. We have had challenges in recruitment in the intelligence and other parts of Defence as a result of requirements of security vetting, but we are now getting well on top of that. The implementation of the first principles review is now well advanced. As you know, the two-year implementation of the first principles review commenced on 1 July 2015. The oversight board, chaired by David Peever has continued to meet regularly and the CDF and myself chair an implementation committee that has met every week but four since April of 2015. Four meetings have been missed since April of 2015—persistence and consistency being the message. The new Defence committee, the investment committee and the enterprise business committee are now working effectively and I would note that the investment committee has a representative from each of the Department of Finance and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Pathway to Change program was a cultural change program that commenced in April 2012. It was a fiveyear cultural change program. We commenced work some months ago on a successor to that and we will have a successor in place by the middle of the year. I would simply note that over the last 12 months, some 46 per cent of all SES appointments were women. The number of women in the Defence senior executive service has grown from 31 to 45 over the last 12 months. The proportion of women in the Defence graduate program has also increased from 39 per cent in 2014 to 45 per cent today. I note that three years ago the percentage of Indigenous Australians in Defence APS was 0.7 per cent. Today it is two per cent. That is almost a threefold increase. It is still below where it should be but it is a significant improvement. I would also note the initiatives that Defence has taken outside of any government requirements, particularly in the area of employment of people with disabilities. We have a partnership with Hewlett-Packard. They have a FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE AND TRADE LEGISLATION COMMITTEE
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