Defence innovation Review reveals nothing

It is now clear why both the Coalition and current governments attempted to bury a major Defence Innovation Review – its contents and findings are too sensitive to be seen by the public.

The government released a redacted version of the review, carried out by David Peever, Chairman elect of Cricket Australia, and a non Executive Director with the Australian Foundation Investment Company and the Melbourne Business School early this week.

Virtually every page and entire sections have been blanked out such as all the recommendations of the review (pictured). Throughout the report the vast majority of pages and text is blank.

For example only one paragraph of the executive summary survived the censor pen.

This said Australia could be proud of a solid foundation established in defence innovation.

It listed Armidale class patrol boats, Land 17, self-propelled howitzers the Integrated Battlefield Telecommunications Network (Project Currawong) and Loyal Wingman unmanned aircraft as examples.

A growing ecosystem of agile SMEs and global companies also came in for praise.

However once the review noted the increasingly complex defence environment, the pages went blank.