Red Tape Will Strangle Labor Party’s Proposed DARPA-Lookalike: Defence Industry Expert

A supplied photograph of an Australian Army M1A1 Abrams tank firing at targets during Exercise Chong Ju at Puckapunyal training area, Victoria, Australia on May 17, 2018. AAP Image/Supplied by Australian Department of Defence

The opposition Australian Labor Party’s promise to establish a dedicated military research agency—akin to DARPA in the United States—will simply spawn bureaucratic red tape and struggle to deliver actual results, according to defence industry expert Lincoln Parker.

On April 28, shadow ministers from the centre-left Labor party pledged to establish a brand-new agency within the Department of Defence, if elected, to fund “pivotal research in breakthrough technologies for national security.”