I once heard the Oz dept of defence described as "internecine"....

I once heard the Oz dept of defence described as "internecine". That would indicate internal battles over such things as funding allocations - i.e. webbing vs collins (lol).
I can't imagine that Oz dod would be devoid of people that can understand mst potential, just that those in control of the funding have different priorities. Hopefully mst can turn that attitude around, but it will look pretty damning if it happens after an Australian technology has been made and taken up in the U.S. first.
There is another lesson from history too that always reminds me a bit of mst and that is the case of the owen gun. Remember that it was the government that overrode the military bureaucracy with regard to the owen and that was in the midst of war.