Defence welcomes infrastructure deal makers amid rising tensions

afr.com:

The Defence Department is exploring private financing to help pay for military bases and other facilities as officials scramble to find the funds to support nuclear-powered submarines and expanding northern bases.

But Defence deputy secretary Celia Perkins, who oversees its landholdings, said there were no plans to cut back on infrastructure spending to ease pressure on inflation.

“Defence is about 4 per cent of the national infrastructure spend each year, so we’re quite a small player,” Ms Perkins toldThe Australian Financial Review Infrastructure Summit on Tuesday.

Celia Perkins in the deputy secretary at the Defence Department. She was pictured after The Australian Financial Review Infrastructure Summit. Michael Quelch

“We work really hard on our future pipeline with other parts of government with [Infrastructure] Minister [Catherine] King’s department, and with the states and territories. And then we’re focused really keenly on how we can achieve the work we need to do in service of those priorities.”

Ms Perkins said the government had committed $3.8 billion over the next four years on expanding Defence’s footprint in northern Australia, an area spanning far north Queensland, the Northern Territory, north of Exmouth in Western Australia and out to the Cocos and Keeling Islands.

Some of these projects include runways, fuel storage, accommodation, security and expanded training ranges.

A further $8 billion has been committed for AUKUS infrastructure, most notably upgrading HMAS Stirling in Perth to accommodate nuclear-powered submarines, including wharf expansions, training and logistics.

To help pay for this, Ms Perkins said Defence was considering expanding its use of private finance to accelerate the delivery of new