Australia's senior defence leadership need to be called out publicly and made accountable for failures, Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie says.
Defence Minister Richard Marles has said there are "issues of culture" within the higher ranks of the Australian Defence Force and Department of Defence that need to be challenged.
Mr Marles reportedly hauled in secretary Greg Moriarty, and Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell for a meeting to demand a better culture of excellence.
Defence has a history of projects blowing out and being delayed.
Senator Lambie said she would take Mr Marles seriously when he began issuing letters of no confidence to defence's leadership.
"The minister needs to take the next step and he needs to get rid of them," she told Sky News on Monday.
"Because if he's not going to do that, he's all just chat and I'm not interested."
The ADF also faces a major retention issue, as thousands of personnel leave every year, in addition to falling behind on recruitment targets.
Senator Lambie said the military had become an "institution in itself".
"They just believe they don't have to answer anybody," she said.
Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said the government wanted to ensure taxpayers got bang for their buck from Defence, which has a $50 billion budget.
"There's been a culture of cost overruns ... in Australia for too long," he said.
"Given that it's a very large expenditure that's undertaken on behalf of Australian taxpayers, they expect that if we enter into a project it's delivered on time, it's delivered on budget and importantly, there is sustainment funding throughout the life of the project so it can meet the goals that it was intended for."
