This audit would assess the effectiveness of the Department of Defence’s (Defence’s) sustainment of the Defence estate.

Defence is the largest Commonwealth landholder. Defence manages $33.8 billion in land, buildings, infrastructure, plant and equipment, and intangibles including heritage and cultural assets, with a gross replacement value of approximately $68 billion.

The Defence estate consists of around 700 owned and leased properties, comprising 25,000 buildings and 6,000 other structural assets, including critical infrastructure and facilities such as military bases, wharves, ports, airbases, training ranges, fuel and explosive ordnance infrastructure. Defence estate and infrastructure are enabling capabilities for the Australian Defence Force to conduct and sustain military operations.

The Defence estate requires a significant program of infrastructure works and investment to sustain it. Under the Defence Estate Strategy 2016–36, Defence was to have established a Capability Life Cycle Estate and Asset Management Framework that integrates, prioritises, and programs all estate investment (sustainment, capability–related investment, and maintenance/upkeep) within the Facilities and Infrastructure Program of the Integrated Investment Program by 2020–21.