The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ("SIPRI") contains details of the Australian Department of Defence's quarterly data on Australian arms exports. The reports give data on the total value of approved arms export licences broken down by destination region.
Unfortunately, the last quarterly data was for the Financial Year 2019/20.
DEC (Defence Export Controls)'s quarterly permit statistics provide the number and type of export applications received and finalised, application processing timeframes, the estimated total value of permits issued, and the breakdown of permits issued to end-users by continent.
The statistics do not equate to actual exports as there is no obligation to conduct or report on an activity under a permit.
Since 2018, Australia has been seeking to become a top ten global defence exporter. This will include making $A3.8 billion in government (i.e. taxpayers') funding available for loans to companies and establishing an Australian Defence Export Advocate. As of 2018, the total value of Australian defence exports was around $A2 billion per year. While this made Australia the 20th largest exporter of defence goods and services, it represented only around half of one percent of the global arms trade
Its main exports are products and components that fit into broader global supply chains for weapons and weapons systems. For example, the government boasts there isn’t a single F-35 fighter jet production operation that doesn’t feature Australian-made components.
The government sees further export potential for products and components to be used in armoured vehicles, advanced radar systems, and patrol boats, as well.
While Australia hasn’t made much headway on its export ranking, it has enjoyed some impressive sales success. In the 2017-18 financial year, the estimated value of approved export permits was A$1.5 billion. By 2019-20, it had grown to nearly $5.5 billion, a dramatic increase.
Considerable government (i.e., taxpayers') funding is involved in this effort, including $1 billion allocated to the Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise for building missiles.
Australia doesn’t provide data on which countries it exports arms to. It only maps the regions, and unhelpfully, it lumps the Middle East and Asia together.
"Officially" this website states that "Australia’s top defence export markets are the US, UK, EU, New Zealand and Canada. The IndoPacific region is also a key destination market.
— More than 50 companies share more than A$1.7 billion in contracts as part of the global Joint Strike Fighter Program investment.
— Thales Australia Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles are exported for use by countries including Fiji, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine and the UK.
— Australia is working with the US Department of Defense to create sensors and decoys for naval fleets."
However, we do know successive defence ministers have courted markets in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Heavily redacted documents obtained by the Guardian in January 2020 under a Freedom of Information request indicate that in 2018-19, Australia issued 45 arms export permits to the UAE and 23 to Saudi Arabia as well as to Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another 14 permits were approved for the countries from 2019-20. Australian companies are selling weapons and military technology to countries around the world accused of war crimes, but the Australian government has refused to say what weapons have been sold, for how much, or for what purpose.
Today (Wednesday 25 October 2023) the Guardian reports that Australia has approved 322 defence exports to Israel over the past six years, according to new figures that will fuel questions at a Senate hearing today.
The government-compiled figures, which include 49 permits for Israel-bound exports last year and 23 in the first three months of this year, may cover both military-specific goods and also dual-use devices.
The Greens’ defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said Australia had “one of the most secretive and unaccountable weapons export systems in the world”, given that it doesn’t break down the exact items exported.
Shoebridge, who will ask the defence department about the exports at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra today, said he held “a very deep concern that Australian material is being used in the attack on Gaza”.
However, the figures do not go into that level of detail. In response to questions on notice from Shoebridge, the government disclosed that 322 permits for Israel-bound military or dual-use exports had been issued since 1 January 2017.
The number of permits for Israel peaked at 62 in 2021, before dropping to 49 in 2022, followed by a further 23 in January to March this year.
Israel was one of 14 countries for which Shoebridge sought defence export figures. The Philippines was the second-largest destination among the countries that were part of the question, with 158 permits in the same period.
Other destinations included Mali (70 permits) and Burkina Faso (56 permits).
Previous disclosures indicated that Australia approved 21 permits for the export of military or dual-use equipment to Saudi Arabia between 1 January and 9 November 2022, an increase on previous levels to that country.
In the response detailing the figures, the government said permits were “required for a broad range of goods and technologies such as software, radios or chemicals that have legitimate civilian and commercial applications”.
“Every export permit decision must assess any relevant human rights risks and Australia’s compliance with its international obligations,” the government response said.
“If Defence identified an export might be used to facilitate human rights abuses, a permit would be refused.”
The government said each export application was assessed against criteria that include foreign policy, human rights, national security, regional security and Australia’s international obligations such as the arms trade treaty.
But the Greens argue Australia should join other countries in publishing “who we are selling weapons to, what those weapons are and how much they cost”.
“When Australia changed governments last year there was hope it would reverse the Coalition’s push to make Australia a top 10 global arms dealer,” Shoebridge said.
“Instead, the Albanese government has doubled down on arms sales to some of the world’s most troubling regimes.”
Last week a veteran US state department official quit his role in protest against arms sales to Israel, saying he had made many “moral compromises” during his 11 years at the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Josh Paul said in a letter posted on LinkedIn that he had promised to stay in that role “for as long as I felt the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do”.
“I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued – indeed, expanded and expedited – provision of lethal arms to Israel, I have reached the end of that bargain,” Paul wrote.
The US said this week it was sending military advisers and air defence systems to Israel ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza by Israel’s military.
The Australian government has joined the US in affirming Israel’s right to self-defence after the 7 October Hamas attack, but has also called for the protection of civilian lives and humanitarian access to Gaza.
The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, is due to speak about the war in an address in Canberra today
Leaving aside the question of alleged Israeli war crimes, previous Australian arms exports have included to:
- The UAE’s military, whose Presidential Guard is commanded by retired Australian army major general Mike Hindmarsh, which has been accused of war crimes in the brutal conflict in Yemen, where a coalition of UAE, Saudi and Yemeni government military forces are engaged in a bitter battle with Houthi rebels believed to be backed by Iran.
- Saudi Arabia’s military, which has led the coalition fighting in the five-year conflict, and which has been plagued by human rights abuses including hospitals being bombed, civilians being targeted by shelling and sniper fire, civilian populations being deliberately starved, medical supplies being blocked, rape, murder, enforced disappearances, torture, and forcing children to fight.
- The Sri Lankan military, which has been accused of war crimes over several years and complicity in the continued disappearance, abuse and torture of Tamil citizens, democracy activists, journalists and opponents of the government. Re-elected prime minister, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, led the military at the conclusion of the country’s civil war: the 2009 operation to end the war left up to 40,000 civilians dead, according to a UN experts’ report. The current head of the military, Shavendra Silva, led the Sri Lankan army’s 58 Division unit in 2009, which was accused of intentional and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, no-fire zones and hospitals.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo, which has had a number of arms embargoes imposed upon it since 2003 because of a supply of weapons fueling mass killings, human rights abuses and torture. The government’s military was previously included in sanctions banning the supply of all arms and related material, but was removed from the sanctions list in 2008. Arms embargoes still apply to non-government forces.
- BAE Systems Australia
- Thales Australia Limited
- Boeing Defence Australia
- Lockheed Martin Australia
- Raytheon Technologies
- Northrop Grumman Australia
So why is Australia so secretive, given that the US is apparently very transparent about reporting all international Major Arms Sales?
Have a look above again at the list of those major defence contractors in Australia: many wholly owned subsidiaries of their US counterparts and together comprising the world's largest arms manufacturers.
Is it to long a bow to draw to conclude that maybe, just maybe, when those manufacturers don't want the world to know what they are making and to which country they're being sold to they might use Australia's secrecy to disguise those sales from public scrutiny?
I'm yet to hear a a more convincing argument. Perhaps David Shoebridge will get some answers at Senate Estimates.
But given the secrecy and routine redacting to date, I suspect not.
Today's Senate Estimates gave rise to the following from Mr. Shoebridge:
- "Since 2020 Australia has INCREASED the number of weapons export permits for Saudi Arabia at the time the Kingdom is engaged in the brutal killing of tens of thousands of people in Yemen - when I asked Defence about this they said the permits might be for sporting equipment?!" See https://twitter.com/i/status/1717005329404453123
- "The truth is just like with the exports to Israel, the Australian Government won't tell the public what the permits were actually for and don't track what is done with weapons sent from Australia into these countries where we know horrific human rights abuses are occurring."
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