Buck-passing inside Australia’s murky arms trade
For those concerned about Australia’s role in the global arms trade and particularly Ethinvest clients who have chosen to screen out weapons companies in their investments, one of our clients has shared an important new story.
Writer and researcher Michelle Fahy says that Australia bears responsibility for how Australian-made weapons are used in conflict zones around the world and that our nation is now more embedded in, and reliant on, the US military than it was in 2001.
After nine months of denials, Federal Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong admitted in June that Australia is still exporting parts into the global F-35 supply chain, a point of contention because Israel is using its F-35s in its war in Gaza. Both senior ministers also noted at the same time that Australia’s F-35 fleet forms the heart of our air force’s “fast jet capability.”
Fahy looks at how Australia is participating in the global arms trade and raises concerns about the lack of transparency to the public about that role and whether most of us believe this is an industry our nation should be profiting from.
Read the full article by Michelle Fahy here.
