Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government have made no secret of their plan to make military technology one of Australia's top exports. This plan is working, with some $5 billion worth of sales approved last financial year alone. The problem is that the government has approved military sales to countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Eritrea and Sudan, countries with appalling human rights records, with some directly involved in civil wars and other conflicts and others responsible for abducting children to become child soldiers, mass executions of prisoners, torture and other horrific war crimes—not that the Australian government would necessarily know, because it does very little to track our arms exports once they've left the country. Moreover, there is a media report today that Australia's Future Fund has almost $160 million invested in 14 companies linked to the Myanmar junta, including a Chinese arms manufacturer which sold aircraft and missiles to the Myanmar military and which is designated by the US as a banned investment entity.

The situation I describe is obviously unethical and out of step with community expectations. No way should we be selling military kit and know-how to the world's most odious governments, nor should we be investing in their own grotesque arms industries. Frankly, the government needs to get out of this trade and get out of it now.