The Federal Government has welcomed Parliament’s approval of a $752 million upgrade of Defence logistics bases around Australia.

 

Parliamentary Secretary for defence, Senator David Feeney, said the Defence Logistics Transformation Program will result in a significant savings and streamlined logistics work.

 

“This move means Defence will see the same outcomes for a lower cost. The program will modernise and consolidate logistic bases across the country, resulting in a saving of approximately $350 million, as well as ongoing savings from greater efficiencies,” Senator Feeney said.

 

“It is also one of our key reform initiatives from the 2009 Defence White Paper. It is an initiative that will deliver a modern, robust and efficient logistics system to support the Australian Defence Force.

 

“Currently, the Defence storage network operates from outdated infrastructure spread across 201 warehouses in 24 locations. This upgrade will see these sites consolidated to seven primary sites and nine specialty sites.

 

Warehouses and maintenance facilities will be constructed around Australia including at Moorebank in western Sydney, Ipswich and Townsville in Queensland, Darwin in the Northern Territory, Perth in Western Australia, Adelaide in South Australia and Wodonga in regional Victoria.

 

Construction is expected to commence in early 2013 at Moorebank, Wadsworth Barracks and Lavarack Barracks, with other sites to follow in the through to mid-2013.  All construction works are expected to be completed by 2015.