The PM Wants Australia To Become One Of The World’s Biggest Arms Exporters
This seems deeply cooked.
Remember the “ideas boom”? Back in 2015 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was absolutely obsessed with “innovation” and tried to convince the nation that startups would save our faltering economy. Well, now we know exactly what kind of nimble, cutting-edge businesses the PM wants to throw his support behind: weapons manufacturers.
This morning the federal government launched a new “Defence Export Strategy” with the goal of making Australia one of the top 10 defence technology exporters in the world. Sure, we might have totally missed the boat on genuinely interesting and productive tech like renewably energy and electric vehicles, but if you want to kill people, we’re aiming to be your go-to country to do business with!
There doesn’t appear to be any particular rationale behind the new policy initiative, other than the fact Malcolm Turnbull likes the idea of Australia selling military technology to the rest of the world.
In the press release announcing the plan the government said the strategy was about “job creation” but it failed to actually point out exactly how many jobs would be created with the billions of dollars of public money we’re about to throw at large defence companies.
Our government's plan for Australia's future financial security is as an arms dealer in an increasingly volatile world.
I am not ok with that.
I want better for my children.#auspol
— Rachel Baker (@RachelBkr) January 28, 2018
What Exactly Is The Government Proposing?
There are actually quite a few different specific initiatives the government has cooked up to help fulfil its newfound ambition to flood the world with military hardware. A new Australian Defence Export Office will be created to help facilitate international trade deals, the federal government will loan $3.8 billion to Australia defence manufacturers to help them produce the goods, and an extra $20 million per year will be spent on grants and programs to help grow the broader defence industry.
It’s an ~interesting~ mix of policies because the strategy totally flies in the face the Coalition’s stated preference for the free market. This is old fashioned industry policy. You pick an industry you want to succeed and you plough billions of dollars of public money into it to try and make it succeed, even if there isn’t any private demand.
If the world was desperately crying out for Australian arms our defence manufacturers would have no problems securing loans to grow their businesses. But the fact that they need government grants and loans means that we’re deciding arbitrarily to grow the defence industry for… well, we don’t know why. Malcolm Turnbull likes guns?
Who’s Going To Buy Australian Arms?
The government’s plan is to export arms to markets all around the world, including the Middle East, Asia, the US, Europe and New Zealand. To find out specifically what countries we’re going to be arming, and therefore what conflicts we’re indirectly perpetuating, we can take a look at some big recent deals.
Going to try again. We were once know as an innovative nation. Let’s export science and the arts instead of becoming an arms dealer #auspol
— Ben (@beachblitz) January 29, 2018
One country Australia has recently expanded its military business with is the theocratic dictatorship of Saudi Arabia. The government has approved a number of businesses to deal directly with Saudi Arabia, but they haven’t disclosed the total number of arms sales to the country.
Saudi Arabia has been locked in a military conflict in Yemen since 2015. Over the time nearly 10,000 people have lost their lives, many due to air strikes launched by the Saudi air force. More than 20 million people now need humanitarian assistance, making up 75 percent of Yemen’s population.
The conflict has been devastating for the people of Yemen but a boon for arms manufacturers, particularly those in the UK. It seems like the Australian government has looked at the money to be made in the current state of global insecurity and decided that they want a piece of the action.
Aid groups are, unsurprisingly, furious. Marc Purcell, from the Australian Council for International Development, told ABC radio this morning that “We should not be getting into the game of marketing weapons which kill, maim, and bring great sorrow and destruction to communities around the world”.
“The Middle East is a hotspot for conflict and violence. We do not need Australian weapons being sold there,” he said.
Fair point, tbh.
Oh, and in case you were wondering what Labor’s position was — senior frontbencher Anthony Albanese told the ABC that he backed the new arms exporting strategy. Yay, Australia.
Let’s make those guns, baby!!
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Feature image via Wikimedia Commons
