Documents outlining the nasty budgetary headache for the Coalition were obtained by Fairfax under freedom of information law. They show the government's funding shortfall for the defence estate sitting at $13 million this financial year but blowing out by $582 million and $463 million in the following two years. It will put intense pressure on the government to sell off parts of the 3 million hectare estate boasting 25,000 buildings, as recommended by the National Commission of Audit in the first half of 2014. Professionals Australia ACT director David Smith said continued deterioration and safety and environmental risks would be the result of underfunding of this magnitude. "It is difficult to believe that they take their workplace health and safety responsibilities seriously," Mr Smith said.

"We will lose capability and we may lose or endanger lives." Do you know more? Send confidential tips to ps@canberratimes.com.au His organisation represents engineers, scientists and technical staff across the federal public service. Long delays to fix problems were highlighted in early December when the Defence Department sought tender applications to fix potentially dangerous fuel stations two years after it started rectifying the problem of rundown fuel installations across the estate. Mr Smith said engineering work was underresourced and lacked sufficient influence as a result of years of neglect, outsourcing and "a higher level aversion to accountability".

"Defence is being gamed by not investing in appropriate levels of expertise and oversight," he said. The Defence documents said funding was used to fix capability and workplace safety risks as a priority and that "opportunity funding" was directed to the estate "when available". Legacy problems throughout the huge Defence estate is a big financial challenge for the department which was already spending about $2 billion on estate maintenance in this and the following two financial years. The Commission of Audit said in the past two decades Defence's capital funding had been primarily directed to military equipment rather than facilities, with average capital reinvestment in the estate falling by about a third. Shadow assistant defence minister David Feeney said so-called super bases to consolidate Australian Defence Force members in fewer, larger facilities had been successful.