An Australian SME becomes able to work on classified defence work

A circular dependency, written down. A firm needs cleared people to win classified work, and needs the work to justify clearing people. Nothing in the process is unreasonable on its own and the combination excludes almost everyone without a balance sheet.

defenceAn established Australian small or medium business with relevant technical capability seeking to supply into a classified defence program skeleton compare across jurisdictions

This is a structural skeleton, not a measured process. The steps, the authorities and the sequence are researched from this jurisdiction's published requirements and are broadly right. The durations are a uniform template applied across all jurisdictions, so the differences between them on the comparison page are mostly an artefact of that template rather than evidence about Australia. Do not quote the day counts. Replacing them with sourced figures for even one jurisdiction would make this page genuinely useful.

810 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

10 discrete steps
across 3 bodies

22% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

60 days saved by concurrency
vs. 870 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

assessment	390d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.
applicant	240d	Waiting on the applicant to supply or fix something.
queue	150d	Waiting behind unrelated work in a backlog.
scheduling	30d	Waiting for a person or committee to become available.

180 of 810 elapsed days are spent waiting for a person or a meeting rather than for a judgement to be formed. Removing that time changes no assessment standard and lowers no bar -- it is the cost of scheduling alone.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A business needs to handle Defence classified information or assets, requiring DISP membership and cleared personnel.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	Establish security governance and documentation application Security officer appointed, policies written, personnel and physical security procedures documented.	—	applicant	—	120 estimate	—
2	Foreign ownership, control or influence assessment assessment Assessment of whether foreign ownership, control or influence disqualifies the business. after Establish security governance and documentation 630d slack	Defence Industry Security Program and Defence Export Controls	assessment	—	60 estimate	—
3	Sponsor personnel security clearances application Nominate staff for the clearance level the intended work requires. after Establish security governance and documentation 660d slack	Australian Government Security Vetting Agency	applicant	—	30 estimate	—
4	Security vetting assessment AGSVA assesses nominated personnel at Baseline, NV1 or NV2. after Sponsor personnel security clearances 510d slack	Australian Government Security Vetting Agency	queue	—	150 reported	—
5	Facility accreditation and ICT system certification certification only if triggered Physical security accreditation of premises and certification of systems that will hold Defence information. Triggered when: The membership level sought requires classified storage or systems. Not required at Entry Level. after Establish security governance and documentation 570d slack	Defence Industry Security Program and Defence Export Controls	assessment	—	120 estimate	—
6	DISP membership decision registration Defence decides the application for membership at the level sought. after Foreign ownership, control or influence assessment, Security vetting 360d slack	Defence Industry Security Program and Defence Export Controls	assessment	—	150 reported	—
7	Respond to an ASDEFCON solicitation application Prepare a tender against the Australian Standard for Defence Contracting templates. after DISP membership decision 270d slack	Department of Defence	applicant	—	90 estimate	—
8	Tender evaluation and contract negotiation assessment after Respond to an ASDEFCON solicitation 30d slack	Department of Defence	assessment	—	240 estimate	—
9	Export permit for controlled goods or technology referral only if triggered Permit to export, re-export or transfer controlled goods, technology or services. Triggered when: The transfer is to a country outside Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Within AUKUS nations, most such transfers have required no licence since 1 September 2024. after Tender evaluation and contract negotiation	Defence Industry Security Program and Defence Export Controls	assessment	—	60 reported	—
10	Commence classified work registration after Tender evaluation and contract negotiation	—	scheduling	—	30 estimate	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Machine-flagged questions

These are produced automatically from the dependency graph. They are questions for a practitioner, not findings. Each one needs a person who has run this process to say whether the constraint is real.

Steps that may not need to wait

Export permit for controlled goods or technology is a referral queued behind work by a different body. Does it consume that body's output, or is it merely sequenced that way by habit?

Proposed changes

AUKUS licence-free environment: a step deleted rather than accelerated remove ~60d
Since 1 September 2024 most controlled goods, technologies and services moving between Australia, the UK and the US need no export licence. The step is gone, not faster — the rarest and strongest reform type in this database. It still applies in full to everyone else.
Break the clearance circularity that keeps small firms out of defence parallelise ~150d
A firm needs cleared people to win classified work and needs the work to justify clearing people. The vetting standard is not the problem. Its position in the sequence is.
Match defence supplier accreditation to the information actually handled threshold ~120d
A supplier machining an unclassified part to a classified drawing is treated differently from one that never sees the drawing. Where the work can be structured so the supplier never holds classified information, the accreditation that protects classified information is protecting nothing.

Sources

Department of Defence, published DISP application guidance: about 2-3 months for Entry Level, 4-6 months for Levels 1 to 3
AGSVA, published performance information: NV1 approximately 3 months, NV2 approximately 5 months
ANAO, Defence's Contract Administration -- Defence Industry Security Program
Department of Defence, AUKUS national exemptions in force from 1 September 2024

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-defence-industry-entry.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.