David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Senators Shoebridge and Roberts today relating to defence exports and to defence honours.

In the first answer we had from Senator Wong when we were asking questions about Australia's defence exports to and imports from Israel—simply asking for some clarification from the government about what, if anything, they've done to comply with international law—there were a number of extraordinary observations. The first related to questions we asked about the export of parts for the F-35 fighter jet, which we know is used by the Israel Defense Forces to commit atrocious war crimes in Gaza. That's really not a question open for debate. The images, the proof and the evidence are appallingly clear for everybody to see. The ICJ has said Australia should do everything it can to not in any way support the occupation of either Gaza or any of the other occupied territories. There are international obligations for us not to fuel war crimes or the crimes of genocide. I asked a very simple question: why hasn't Australia stopped exporting F-35 parts indirectly to Israel, through the United States? We know that's what they're doing, because the defence department has told us that in budget estimates. They have told us that, when they export F-35 fighter parts—and there are some 70 Australian companies that do this—they export them to a common pool in the United States, and with that export permit comes the explicit consent from Australia to then re-export them to all the partner countries in the F-35 program, and that explicitly includes Israel. So, every time Australia sends F-35 parts to a common pool in the United States, they come with Australia's explicit permission to then send them to Israel. And what did Minister Wong say about that? Not one word. Despite being asked about F-35 fighter parts, the minister chose not to respond to that.

Again, we expect this sort of obfuscation and gaslighting from the Labor government when it comes to this, because it's obviously embarrassing to them when they say repeatedly that Australia has not sent any weapons or weapon parts to Israel. That's what Minister Wong says. And then, when the defence department tells us that Australia exports some 70 parts of the F-35 fighter jet to Israel via the United States, and they consciously and deliberately do that, people think the Labor government are lying—and that's because they are lying. They are absolutely lying. The fact that the minister couldn't even mention the F-35, despite being repeatedly asked about it, shows that this government knows that it's lying.

It's not just that. There are companies in Australia, such as Bisalloy, which exports military grade steel to multiple Israeli weapons manufacturers. We know that Currawong Engineering received an award from the minister's own department for its export of drone parts to Israel, and it's exporting those drone parts to Israel only because it got a grant from Defence to make the drone parts in the first place. Her own department gave Currawong Engineering an award, and then she has the hide to stand up here and say, 'We don't know anything about exporting weapons or weapon parts to Israel.'

Then we've got, from DroneShield, the drone gun that's been made only since April of last year in Australia—only made in Australia. That company is sharing images of that drone gun in the hands of an Israeli defence force member in Israel—also in the hands of Prime Minister Albanese. That's not awkward for the Albanese government to admit! What do they say? 'No, we've never helped the Israeli defence force.' It's just gaslighting of the worst kind.

I finish on this other aspect. Another senator asked Minister Wong about the way the former Chief of Defence, General Campbell, has retained his medal for leading the Australian deployment in Afghanistan, despite the fact that we know that, during the time that he was leading the deployment in Afghanistan, he was never actually present in Afghanistan. He was doing it for another part of the Middle East, and he gave himself the DSC, gave himself a military medal for that, and then wrote the report. We now know Minister Wong said that he should keep his medal. They pretend that that's reasonable or decent. It's not.