As a GBE, we are required to maintain a strong financial position and meet commercial return objectives, including the payment of dividends to the Australian Government. Our dividend for 2019–20 is 60 per cent of net profit after tax.

Our funding model

We do not receive funding directly from the Federal Budget. We fund our operations through the receipt of commercial rent, fees and charges from Defence for our services and generate revenue from:

• selling and leasing back properties through our Property Investment Program
• the disposal of excess land and completed properties from our developments
• the disposal of properties that no longer meet minimum Defence standards or provisioning requirements.

We have a loan agreement with the Commonwealth. As at 30 June 2020, we had 19 loans totalling $509.6 million.

We are a full tax paying entity in relation to Australian Government taxes (e.g. corporate income tax, goods and services tax (GST) and fringe benefit tax (FBT)). We also pay state and territory based tax (e.g. stamp duty, land tax and payroll tax) equivalents in accordance with competitive neutrality requirements.

Refer to Part 3 - Performance reporting for more information about our financial performance in 2019–20.

Our credit rating

Standard & Poor’s Rating Services conducts an annual credit rating assessment of DHA.

The report issued on 28 May 2020 confirmed a corporate credit issuer rating of AA+/Negative/A-1+. This rating is reflective of their assessment of the effect of government ownership and the level of support implied by that ownership.

Standard & Poor’s also provided a standalone credit profile rating for DHA of BBB+. This credit profile is one rating above the target for GBEs specified in the GBE Guidelines.