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The Forum > Article Comments > Department of Defence: nowhere to hide > Comments

Department of Defence: nowhere to hide : Comments

By Bruce Haigh, published 13/4/2011

Stephen Smith has made the first moves to reverse a culture of impunity in the defence force given licence under John Howard.

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There are some important issues here.

Who controls the military? This is an age-old question, raised for instance in the English Civil War. And for that matter in the American Civil War too. The military show time and again that they want to be a law unto themselves. But taxpayers for their salaries and for all the weaponry they use. Our only mechanism is parliamentary control, however imperfect. And public scrutiny. As usual, the media shed more heat than light.

As I understand it, we have private (sexual) conduct which has been broadcast to others. It's a bit like the cyberbullying which means that a bullied kid gets humiliated by seeing his suffering shown on the net. We might need new rules for these new situations.

And Bruce: I'm afraid that your passion gets you carried away. Proof-read your work before publishing it. There are examples of misplaced or omitted apostrophes. And many run-on sentences: sentences constructed by stringing clauses together with commas. It distracts from some high-quality thinking.

In all, a useful article, but would be improved by a good editor.
Posted by Bronte, Wednesday, 13 April 2011 4:23:46 PM
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Cloudy day,

You're confusion stems from your misunsderstanding of our westminster system. The DoD is an arm of the executive branch, like the ADF
The Department of Defence consists of 11 major organisational groups:

* Capability Development Group
* Chief Finance Officer Group
* Chief Information Officer Group
* Defence Materiel Organisation
* Defence Science and Technology Organisation
* Defence Support Group
* Intelligence, Security and International Policy
* People Strategies and Policy
* Strategy, Coordination and Governance

Almost all these organisations are setup to support the ADF. The ADF was not set up to support these Departments. What Neil James is adressing on that point is the ongoing problem of the tail wagging the dog. DMO is supposed to find and deliver the ADF the weapons and materials they need to do their job. For too long, the DMO has told defence what it needs, rather than listening to what they're told.

ADF and the DoD are both responsible to the parliament, through the minister. So it is no radical idea to point out that the DoD is there to serve the ADF.
Posted by PaulL, Thursday, 14 April 2011 6:50:04 PM
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