It’s getting on for two years now, and the government is still not saying how it will reconfigure the Defence establishment’s land holdings, known as the Defence estate. It announced an audit of the Defence estate in August 2023 in response to the Defence Strategic Review of that year. Crucially, the hidden costs of the Defence divestment process, rarely offset against the publicly disclosed final sale price, must be considered. As I have long argued, the Defence estate is fundamental to Australia’s national resilience and force posture, serving as both a shield and an enabler of security. The Defence estate audit was meant to chart a way forward.