Projects of concern summit held in Canberra
Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Pat Conroy MP, Thales Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jeff Connolly, and senior Defence, Infrastructure and Airservices Australia officials met today at a Projects of Concern Summit in Canberra.
The Projects of Concern Summit is a forum for senior stakeholders from government and industry to discuss remediation issues for listed Projects of Concern.
In October, the Albanese Government moved to revitalise Defence’s projects of concern process. Ministerial Summits are an important forum to engage on remediation activities.
The recently listed Civil Military Air Traffic Management System (CMATS) project was the focus of today’s discussion.
The Summit agreed to a set of principles for remediating the OneSKY-CMATS project.
The OneSKY program is a partnership between Defence, Airservices Australia and Thales Australia to replace existing air traffic management systems with an advanced, integrated management and control system for civilian and military aviation.
Minister Conroy welcomed the return of the Summit, which was last held in 2020, and thanked Thales Australia for helping to identify ways to improve delivery of the project.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Pat Conroy MP:
“Top-level focus is essential to ensure we put this project on track to deliver a new civil and military air traffic management system for Australia.
“I thank Jeff Connolly and his senior leadership team for the spirit of cooperation and the constructive ideas they brought to the table today.
“The Government is strongly committed to successful delivery of the CMATS project.
“This is an important project that involves highly advanced technology and sophisticated engineering solutions and is building sovereign Air Traffic Management capability in Australia.
“It has the potential to make Australia a global leader in air traffic management, delivering more efficient air services, supporting future growth in air traffic and improving national security.
“The measures we agreed today will strengthen the process and provide leadership of project delivery.
“I’m pleased to say there is a strong commitment from all parties to move forward on resolving and remediating these complex endeavours.”