The Cost of Defence ASPI Defence Budget Brief 2008-09 Sixty-one million, nine hundred & ninety-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-eight dollars & ninety-six cents per day. Prepared by: Mark Thomson Program Director Budget and Management Twenty Selected Defence Project Briefs compiled by: Gregor Ferguson Tom Muir Senior writers at Australian Defence Magazine Cover graphic courtesy of Geoff Pryor ¤ The Australian Strategic Policy Institute Limited 2008 This publication is subject to copyright. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of it may in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, microcopying, photocopying, recording or otherwise) be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without prior written permission. Enquires should be addressed to the publishers. First published May 2008 Published in Australia by: Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Level 2, Arts House, 40 Macquarie Street Barton ACT 2600 Australia Tel: + 61 (2) 6270 5100 Fax: + 61 (2) 6273 9566 Email:
[email protected] Web: http://www.aspi.org.au Note on title: The figure of $61,995,428.96 represents one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of reported Total Defence Funding for financial year 2008–09. This does not include funds appropriated to the Defence Housing Authority, those administered by Defence for military superannuation schemes and housing support services, nor the additional funds provided directly to the Defence Materiel Organisation. CONTENTS Director’s Introduction v Executive Summary vi Section 1 – Background