Defence Minister Marise Payne has no intention of letting a government blueprint for Australia's military become a dust collector.
She is adamant it will be subject to regular reviews that reflect the rapidly changing global security environment.
In Turnbull-government speak that means taking an agile approach to making the Defence white paper a reality.
"I am determined that this white paper ... won't be historic relics that sit on the shelf," Senator Payne told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute conference in Canberra on Thursday.
The minister pointed out the 2013 white paper did not mention the threat posed by Islamic State extremists.
That was not the fault of its authors but a reflection of a changed global security environment, she said.
Three years on Australian Defence Force personnel are training troops in Iraq and conducting airstrikes there and in Syria against IS targets.
Senator Payne predicts coalition forces will face a long and difficult battle to reclaim the IS strongholds of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
The minister also talked up her efforts to brief defence officials in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia about the white paper and their praise of the government's transparency.
Opposition defence spokesman Stephen Conroy has some reservations about implementation including the government's neglect of the US "force posture initiative" in Australia's north.
"Progress has effectively stalled, infrastructure remains unbuilt, negotiations on cost-sharing have been drawn out," Senator Conroy told the conference.
He also reiterated his call for the government to give the navy authorisation to conduct freedom-of-navigation exercises in the South China Sea, centre of a territorial dispute involving China and several other countries including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
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