I'd suggest two strategies, which government is looking at to one degree or another.
The first is deciding sensibly what threshold of dollar value a government should take to cabinet. In our case it's been very low. It's been $200 million. If you look at defence expenditure, that is, I think, a ridiculously low level of expenditure to require a cabinet decision, so you can lift the threshold. We call it “two-minister approval”. The Minister for Defence and the Minister for Finance can themselves take on a lot of the decision-making, which would free up cabinet time.
There's a second thing that I think is worth mentioning. A lot of that football comes down to warfare over cost estimates. What the defence department is trying to do now is maintain a much stronger capability for realistic costing of defence projects to undercut the football matches that they then play with the Department of Finance and others when costing is called into question. You do that by having stronger engagement with the private sector on cost analysis and an almost permanent standing capability of defence and finance officials who fight the fight before you get into the lodging of cabinet submissions.
I think those two things could help streamline the process somewhat.