Defence Minister Robert Hill today announced the start of a two-stage tender process for the Australian Defence Force’s new joint operational headquarters at Bungendore in New South Wales.

"The project to build a state-of-the-art headquarters for the new Joint Operations Command to command and control the ADF’s operations moves a step closer today," Senator Hill said.

Senator Hill said first stage of the tender process would be to call for Registrations of Interest later this month from companies to finance, construct and maintain the facility. The second stage will be to issue a Request for Tender in the middle of this year for the delivery of the facility with the preferred tenderer to be appointed by November.

The new $300 million headquarters will combine seven existing military headquarters and agencies situated in and around Sydney.

Construction of the new facility is expected to start in the middle of next year. Preliminary engineering and design studies have been undertaken. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released for public comment in October last year and the supplementary report is being prepared. It is expected the new headquarters, with about 1000 operational staff, will be fully operational in
2007-08.

Senator Hill said the decision to privately finance the facility marked a sea change in Commonwealth procurement, as this was the first time Government had sought to privately finance the construction and maintenance of a major facility on a greenfield site.

"The successful tenderer will be responsible for the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the new headquarters as well as providing infrastructure and ancillary support," Senator Hill said.

"When the facility is commissioned, Defence will lease the headquarters for an initial period of between 20 to 30 years. Although contract security staff will undertake the physical security requirements of the new headquarters, Defence will retain oversight and responsibility of security, in much the same manner as at a number of other Defence establishments. Defence will also retain responsibility for the delivery of the command, control, communications and information systems."

Senator Hill said the private financing of the facility would provide the Government with some significant advantages throughout the term of the lease arrangement.

The advantages include cost effective transfer of risk to the private sector, improvements to financial and risk management throughout the life of the lease period and reduced financial exposure because lease payments are not required until the facility is successfully commissioned.