A MUSICAL VOYAGE - Royal Australian Navy

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7. The Navy Strategic Plan 2009-2010 prescribes as one of its key outputs building
partnerships with Government, the Australian public and the other Defence elements who
contribute to the Navy mission. These relationships provide assurance of the enduring and
effective support of Navy’s activities. Externally, to contribute to this, a positive reputation
for Navy needs to be maintained. 5
RAN Band’s bid for FRC days
8. The Navy Reserve Whole-of-Capability Workforce Review (NR WOCWR) was
established to support the challenges of Chief of Navy’s intent outlined in The Navy
Strategic Plan 2009-2010. The aim of the review was to align the Navy Reserve construct to
prioritise capability outputs in accordance with The Navy Strategic Plan 2009-2010 and to
ensure a sustainable workforce to meet future capability requirements. 6
9. It is worth noting that prior to the NR WOCWR the band instigated it’s own
measures to establish Reserve Support Element’s in the Sydney and Melbourne detachments
using days allocated to positions in the New South Wales detachment. This intent was to
enable a more effective disposition of reserve musician resources, achieving two fully
integrated detachments without disestablishing any reserve positions. This objective was to
enable the band to deliver a more effective and flexible level of musical service to Navy;
including to its ongoing support to Sea Deployments.
10. As part of the consultation phase of the NR WOCWR, Position Managers were given
the opportunity to provide input—specifically how each individual position contributed to
capability output. The band’s bid (shown at Annex A) revised downwards its 34 current
shared positions to 32 shared positions with a small increase from 4,984 to 5,003 days. The
bid equated to a modest average allocation of 40 days for each of the 126 reserve
musicians, and was forwarded ranked as Priority 5 using the given Personnel Prioritisation
guidelines. All but one of the 32 positions were aligned to Part 1 of the Strategic Map, 7 and
all but six were marked by the capability manager as essential to capability.
11. The NR WOCWR assessed each position based on Chief of Navy’s priorities,
capability output in accordance with The Navy Strategic Plan 2009-2010, and the Position
Manager's priorities. 8
Allocation of FRC days
12. The outcome of the first phase of the NR WOCWR delivered a reduction of the
band’s 32 essential positions to seven (shown at Annex B), and is a meagre 760 days with a
full salary cost of $140,640—this equates to six days for each of the band’s 126 reserve
musicians and represents an 84% cut compared against current levels. 9
13. The detailed analysis of the NR WOCWR has not been made available to all
stakeholders, and there has been no explanation as to how the cutbacks were determined
other than being based on Chief of Navy priorities, capability output, and the Position
Manager's priorities. Nor is it apparent how the distribution of the 760 days was
determined. For example, why were all of the positions in the New South Wales
detachment disestablished, and why was the Tasmanian detachment allocated twice as
many days as the Queensland and South Australian detachments when the Queensland and
South Australian detachments each have twice as many musicians and maintain stronger
capability and significantly higher levels of output when compare to the Tasmanian
detachment? Furthermore, why was the Western Australian detachment allocated three
times as many days as the Queensland and South Australian detachments when all three
detachments are similar in size and maintain the same capability and levels of output?
5
ibid, para 31
6
AUSNAVSTRATCOM ZNR 162109Z NOV 09 – Navy Reserve Capability Review
7
ibid, Annex A
8
Naval Reserve Whole-of-Capability Workforce Review - Phase I – Update, p.1, para7
9
4,984 days were allocated to the band’s FRC positions for FY 09/10 compared to the forecast 760 days in
future years.
Royal Australian Navy Band: A Musical Voyage