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Derek Woolner

Derek Woolner is a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the ANU.

He was policy advisor to Defence Ministers Lance Barnard and Bill Morrison and Director of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Group of the Parliamentary Research Service of the Commonwealth Parliament till December 2001.

He has since been a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Australian National University where he writes on the implementation of defence policy, particularly in the fields of finance, force development and materiel acquisition. He is co-author of Steel, Spies and Spin: The Collins Class Submarine Story.

Articles by Derek Woolner (2)

  • Derek Woolner 5 Aug 2015 13:27

    Abbott plan raises new questions for shipbuilding industry in existential crisis

    Yesterday, the Abbott Government announced an $89 billion warship building program that it said would allow for 'a continuous build of surface warships in Australia', thus guaranteeing 2500 jobs in South Australian shipbuilding 'for decades'. These are bold claims for an exceptionally difficult task, especially since it appears from the statements surrounding the announcement that the Government has as yet little idea of how it will manage the implementation of its proposals. Launch ceremony for
  • Derek Woolner 15 Apr 2015 14:45

    Will space and cyber operations affect ADF force structure?

    Over the past month, The Interpreter has hosted a debate on Australian defence strategy initiated by Alan Dupont's Lowy analysis paper, Full-Spectrum Defence. The discussion so far has only glanced tangentially off the most brutal of the realities affecting defence strategy: the perpetually frustrating issue of money and the imperative for which it is always a proxy, the identification of priorities. Hugh White raised the issue in his response to Alan's initial post, in the context that finance