Morrison government accused of keeping defence decisions secret and ‘banked up’ for election campaign

An Australian army tank fires a round during an exercise at the Puckapunyal military base in Victoria in 2019. Labor says the public has a right to know if there are secret defence decisions the Morrison government is holding off for an election campaign. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images

The Department of Defence will not commit to briefing the opposition on major project decisions that the Morrison government may have made secretly prior to the launch of the election campaign.

The stance has led the opposition to claim the government may have already signed off on a series of defence-related decisions “which are banked up but not yet public”, essentially saving them for the campaign period.