Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Hansard source

The Australia’s defence relations with the United States report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade confirms that Australia does indeed have a strong and ongoing relationship with the United States. This relationship was cemented during the dark days of the Second World War and has continued since. It is a relationship which in many respects is based on similar national characteristics and shared values such as a love of freedom and, of course, our commitment to the ANZUS treaty.

This report deals with a number of issues that are important for the future of Australia, our relationship with the US and the continued cooperation of our armed forces. On most of these issues there was unanimous agreement and support among the committee, whilst we agreed to disagree on other issues. Certainly there was disagreement in the case of missile defence. The summary in chapter 5 of the report deals with that issue. It states:

Opinion was divided along party lines about whether Australia should continue to participate in the US Missile Defence Program ...

Generally, the committee worked well on a non-political basis as we sought to come to grips with some very important issues of joint interest to Australia and the US. These issues included the importance of interoperability between our defence forces, an Australia-US joint training centre, combined exercises, intelligence sharing and the selection of defence equipment, which included discussion on the Abrams tank and, of course, a strong focus on the Joint Strike Fighter program. Indeed, as part of its deliberations the committee had the opportunity to visit the US and take a close look at the Abrams tank and also the JSF acquisition, which is the subject of a current inquiry by the committee. Suffice to say that at this stage there is considerable concern regarding JSF cost blow-outs, capability, time frame and other concerns, which will be dealt with in the committee’s current inquiry and on which, in due course, the committee will report to the House.

Perhaps the committee’s most important recommendation is recommendation 1, which states:

The Committee recommends that the ANZUS Alliance be maintained in its current form and that the treaty be viewed not just as a specific set of requirements, rather as a statement of shared values capable of being acted upon in the face of evolving contemporary threats.

The committee took a strong interest in the issue of interoperability. This of course flows from the fact that we are part of an important alliance with the United States and our troops are actively engaged in hostile operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Interoperability of equipment is important, but so too is the interoperability of troops on the ground. Joint training exercises are just as important as common equipment.

The committee also had a strong focus on the Australian defence industry. Indeed, in chapter 7 of the report we said:

Evidence to the inquiry has been supportive of the need to maintain an Australian defence industry as a vital component of defence capability.

We also discussed impediments to access the US defence market and noted that the US defence market is ‘larger than the Defence markets in the next 15 to 20 countries combined’. We also noted that impediments to accessing these markets are ‘significant’.

It is important to note that we deal with this issue in some depth in chapter 7. In 7.40, for instance, we say:

However other US Legislation appears to be designed to protect inefficient US industries, an obvious example of which is the US ship building industry. Innovative Australian companies, like Austal Ships of Western Australia or Incat of Tasmania, face significant hurdles in reaching their customers in the US ...

But we also note in the report that there is a lot of happiness with products coming out of Australia, including, for instance, the Bushmaster vehicle and Australian fast ferry designs.

In conclusion, I want to thank members of the committee staff, including Colonel Gus McLachlan for his contribution to the work of this committee, for his input into this report and also for his input into our trip to Iraq. It just goes to show that Armoured Corps soldiers, when guided by those with infantry experience, can indeed make a valuable contribution to the task at hand.

See this speech in context