Australian taxpayers will once again be funding companies with ties to the Israel Defense Forces, with the government’s announcement that Norwegian arms manufacturer Kongsberg will receive $850 million to build missiles at a manufacturing facility near Newcastle.
Kongsberg, which has maritime, defence, aerospace and digital arms, is majority-owned by the Norwegian government.
Norway bans arms exports to countries in states of war, including Israel, and in February, Norway’s foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said: “states exporting weapons to Israel should reassess whether they are effective partners in the genocide in Gaza Strip or not.”
However, Norway does not prevent Norwegian arms firms from manufacturing weapons for export via other countries. One such company is Nammo — the Nordic Ammunition Company — headquartered in Norway, which manufactures the M141 Bunker Defeat munition at its Meso, Arizona and Salt Lake City facilities.
Nammo’s ownership is split between Norway and Finland, with Kongsberg owning half of the Finnish share. The munitions have been sold to Israel and used in Gaza, though Nammo defends itself by saying it is not responsible for the onselling of its munitions once it has sold them. Pro-Palestinian activists have demanded that Norwegian universities end collaboration with Kongsberg and the company has also been criticised for manufacturing parts in the global network of F-35 production and production of munitions used by the fighter.
The company is a regular beneficiary of Australian defence spending: according to Austender records, since late October 2023 the company has earned around $42 million in contracts with the Department of Defence.
Companies with more direct links to the IDF have also enjoyed taxpayer largesse under Labor: Elbit, the company that manufactures the missile used by the IDF to murder Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues, has been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars recently, while Australian company NIOA, another firm that supplies the Israeli military, is a big winner from defence contracts.
