Ex-Pollies now in for their AUKUS cut

There's no hotter business opportunity in Canberra than AUKUS — and the ex-PM is the latest former government insider to jump on board.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison’s announcement that he’s set to join DYNE Maritime, a venture capital firm focused on emerging military technologies, makes him the latest politician to take business opportunities related to AUKUS.

Of all the former MPs and senators who have become involved in private AUKUS business, Morrison might be the one with the closest connection to the subject matter: he was responsible for creating the defence pact alongside US President Joe Biden and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson. But others  have had very close access to AUKUS decision-makers as well

The former Liberal leader who is retiring from Parliament has confirmed he’s set to join DYNE Maritime, a $157 million fund launched in October with the aim of investing in dual use technologies — inventions that have military and civilian applications. According to The Australian Financial Review, DYNE Maritime has its sights set on technologies related to AUKUS. 

Morrison, one of the leaders who launched AUKUS in 2021, told The Australian he will be strategic adviser to the firm, alongside former Trump administration secretary of state and CIA chief Mike Pompeo. He will also take another job alongside a different former Trump adviser: Morrison has been hired as the vice-chair of American Global Strategies, headed by former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien. 

Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said Mr Morrison’s swift move into the private defence sector was an example of why the public was cynical about politicians. Some have expressed grave concerns about the sanctity of Australian government secrets in Morrison's new roles after resigning from parliament.

Arthur Sinodinos, the recent US ambassador and former Liberal industry minister has joined an outfit called AUKUS Forum. As co-chair of the business networking group, Sinodinos has been criss-crossing the country to promote business opportunities for regional companies aimed at “unleashing the regional power of AUKUS”. As Australia’s ambassador in Washington until early last year, Sinodinos was around for the formation of AUKUS and has posted to LinkedIn a picture of himself and Biden in front of an AUKUS banner. 

Joel Fitzgibbon, a former Labor defence and agriculture minister, is the other co-chair of AUKUS Forum. He described the project in a LinkedIn post as being aimed at “maximising Australian industry participation in the AUKUS pact”. A Labor old-timer in Parliament from 1996 to 2022, and having been in cabinet alongside some current key ministers, Fitzgibbon has lots of useful connections in Canberra. Among his post-politics social media posts are pictures where he poses with Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy. 

Former ministers Joel Fitzgibbon and Arthur Sinodinos have embarked on an adventure together, co-chairing a business organisation aimed at taking advantage of the AUKUS defence pact. 

The two are criss-crossing the country at events to promote the organisation, AUKUS Forum, and have events entitled “Unleashing the regional power of AUKUS” planned in Burnie, Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania, and in Bathurst and Broken Hill in NSW.  There is a strict media ban at all events — “no media, no cameras, no mobile phone filming”, invitations say — but neither former politician has been shy about plugging the forum on their social media channels. 

Christopher Pyne, the former Liberal defence minister raised eyebrows in Canberra when he began taking defence consulting work in 2019, immediately after leaving Parliament. Since then AUKUS has made private defence businesses boom, and Pyne hasn’t slept on the opportunity. Last April, his lobby firm Pyne & Partners funded a bipartisan junket to Washington DC and New York, where the likes of Liberal Senator James Paterson and Labor MP Meryl Swanson were introduced to key US defence figures, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. 

Another former Liberal cabinet minister and US ambassador, Joe Hockey has extensive networks in both DC and Canberra that are useful for taking advantage of AUKUS. The ex-treasurer’s Bondi Partners advisory firm reckons “the opportunities for businesses on both sides of the Pacific Ocean will increase significantly” given the increased defence collaboration between the US and Australia. Just months after Morrison’s initial AUKUS announcement, Hockey and investment firm Ellerston Capital launched the 1941 Fund. As The Australian put it in a gushing article announcing the initiative, it’s “Australia’s first pure private investment play into national security … [backed by] a group of high-net-worth patriots from the US and Australia looking to put big licks of private capital behind dual-use technology in defence, intelligence, cyber and space, as well as commercial uses”.

Marise Payne, Australia’s minister of foreign affairs from 2018 to 2022 and a national security and foreign policy practitioner, has joined the Hoover Institution as a distinguished visiting fellow. She was named minister for defense, the first woman ever to hold that post, in 2015, during the Coalition government. She also served as minister for women from 2019 to 2022, concurrent with her post as minister of foreign affairs.

She served in the National Security Committee of the Australian Cabinet for seven years. As foreign minister, she was heavily involved in the establishment of the AUKUS partnership.

Payne also helped grow the Quad partnership, participating in the first in-person meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in 2019. Her focus included collaborating with her US, Japanese, and Indian counterparts on health security, infrastructure, climate, critical technologies, and cybersecurity.

Her time as defence minister included delivery of the 2016 White Paper and Defence Industry Policy Statement, which paved the way for a $200 billion rearmament of the Australian Defence Force.

The Hoover Institution is a highly influential public policy think tank "that seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity". A key focus area is "Confronting and Competing with China" . It is known officially as The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace promoting right-wing  polices that promote personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government. It sits among the largest and most influential of the conservative think tanks that "drive policy and send us to war". The Hoover Institution addresses AUKUS and recognises that the agreement has caused in increase in Chinese aggression which is resulting in substantially increased weapons sales to Taiwan. Funny about that.

In late November 2023, the recent head of the state of South Australia, Steven Marshall, unexpectedly announced his resignation from the parliament. At the end of the year, he was caught being on the local board of directors of the American military-industrial complex corporation Miter.

Now the established connections of the former leadership of Australia will directly work for Washington for good money, for military industrial profits within the military industrial complex.

This is how it works in Australia and all around the globe.