Thank you for inviting me to speak this morning about the achievements and challenges during my time as the Royal Australian Navy’s 8th Director of Music. On this occasion, marking the 110th Anniversary of the Royal Australian Navy Band, it is very satisfying to see the Commander Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral Chris Smith here today. History shows that since its inception 110 years ago, the Navy Band has benefitted significantly by the support of Navy’s senior officers.
During my tenure, the level of output by the band would not have been possible without changing the band’s operating model; so perhaps, the most important achievement, which was also the biggest challenge, was designing and implementing a ‘one band’ structure. This ‘one band’ structure allowed the band to operate a more efficient business model and enhance its contribution to Navy during what were very challenging times, from a financial perspective, and because of various workforce constraints and reforms at that time.
Two examples of the challenging time in Defence music during my tenure as the Director of Music are the Australian Army Band who were forced to restructure after losing 50% of its musicians and the Royal Australian Airforce Band who also lost 50% of its musicians.
When I became the Director of Music in 2002, I controlled the national budget and set policy; but beyond that, had little direct ability to influence the direction and shape of the services being provided to Navy by its musicians. The Musician Category comprised seven separate bands across the nation, each with its own sense of identity and purpose. There were two permanent bands within Fleet Command, and five reserve bands within Australian Navy Systems Command. Not only were they in different Commands but they were all controlled by different local Commanders and the Band Officers and Bandmasters all had different ideas on what their band could or could not do and what jobs they should or should not accept.
When the five reserve bands transferred to Fleet Command in July 2003, the opportunity arose to restructure the band category and implement a unified business model that met the challenges of that time. As part of the process of reform we redefined Who We Were, What We Stood For, and Where We Were Headed, we reshaped our local and national capabilities to achieve higher quality outcomes, and we established a series of benchmark activities that would ultimately raise the band’s image internationally.
For this process of renewal, we needed to have a clearer understanding of who our customers were. If you asked the musicians who were their customers, then they would have said our audiences or the local commander. A few of the older and perhaps wiser heads may have said Navy; but no one would have said the Australian Government and certainly no one would have said the musicians. We redefined our customer model to include the Australian Government as the Owner, Navy as the Stockholder and importantly, the musicians as the shareholders. This new model allowed us to focus on developing a range of capabilities that met the needs of all our customers, including ourselves.
When the band transferred back to Systems Command in 2004, we went as ‘one band’ seven detachments and our unified mission became ‘Promote the Royal Australian Navy. The ‘one band’ structure allowed us to establish of a Sea Deployment Group, to conduct benchmark activities, and to deploy elements of the band to the Middle East Area of Operations, the Solomon Islands, East Timor and the Sinai. These outcomes would not have been possible under the previous structure as there were just too many people pulling the strings and not always in the same direction.
Selecting fifty-six of musicians for various deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and who proudly wear the Australian Active Service Medal was, without doubt, my most gratifying experience. Many of those musicians never in their wildest dreams imagined that they would be selected for those deployments. They were outstandingly successful in raising the band image more widely throughout the Australian Defence Force community. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Navy Band’s deployment to Iraq, which was the first time in 30 years (since the Vietnam War) that the band had deployed on Active Service.
Throughout its history, the Navy Band has performed for thousands of audiences within Australia and around the world. Today, the band continues a proud tradition that started when six musicians joined HMAS Australia in Portsmouth, England, on 21 June 1913. I know that the band is in very good hands, and I congratulate Commander Mohapp and her musicians for continuing a proud tradition and for flying our banner high.
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