On Australia, Israel and Gaza
Greg Poropat writes: Regarding the government’s infantry fighting vehicle contract with Hanwha and Hanwha’s subcontract to the Israeli firm Elbit, it should have been standard procurement practice that during due diligence, before executing the contract, the government required Hanwha to advise the government of its proposed subcontractors. After receiving that information, the government should have investigated those entities and satisfied itself with their credentials.
Further, as part of the contracting process, it should have been standard for the contract to include terms requiring Hanwha to advise the government of all new subcontractors and for the government to retain a unilateral and unqualified right to accept or reject a proposed subcontractor.
If in the Hanwha-Elbit case either of these processes did not occur, it was procurement incompetence of the highest order, which would not be surprising for an Australian defence contract. If good procurement practice was followed, Defence Industry Minister Conroy’s assertion that the Commonwealth is not a party to the contract, while technically correct, does not remove the government from its participation and responsibility in Elbit’s role in the contract. Either way, the government stands condemned for this.
Sarah Russell writes: Our government must come clean about the money it gives Elbit. It must also come clean about Australian companies supplying weapons to Israel.
Albanese government ministers and MPs use the words “weapons” and “to Israel” to obfuscate the fact that Australia continues to export essential parts and components of weapons systems to the US that are bound for Israel.
According to a recent Defence Department media release, more than 70 Australian companies supply parts and components into the global supply chain of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet. Several of the companies are the sole source of the parts they produce. Without them, new F-35 jets cannot be built and parts in existing jets cannot be replaced.
On April 4, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that included a demand for an arms embargo on Israel. Rather than respond to this directive, our government continues to play political games with the Greens and continues its misleading mantra that Australia is not exporting “weapons”.
Elizabeth Robinson writes: I fully support the stance being taken by the Greens in relation to support for Israel. I am perfectly in support of using the term “genocide” in relation to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Recent reports quote the death toll at 36,731 people killed and 83,530 people injured in the territory. More than 1 million civilians were taking shelter in the Rafah area, which was “accidentally” bombed last month.
This follows the “accidental” bombing of a humanitarian convoy in which an Australian was killed.
While claiming to support a two-state solution, our government has not been able to support full statehood for Palestine in the UN. It remains committed to providing material support in the way of weapons/components for Israel. The continuation of this situation, with a lack of transparency into how support is provided to Israel (which requires investigative journalism to uncover), represents a significant breach of my trust in the Australian government. As such, I consider Australia to be complicit in support of Israel’s genocidal actions in Palestine.
Mark Taylor writes: I totally concur with and support Bernard Keane’s article and opinion piece about Labor’s confected outrage over Greens-supported protests. It is clear it is trying to distract the party faithful and voters from its lack of action to implement the Labor policy platform on recognising Palestine.
Labor has also tried a range of deception techniques to try to deny that Australia is selling military equipment to Israel.
It is clear that the Albanese government still strongly supports Israeli aggression in all material facets. The verbal critique by Albo and Wong is just for hoodwinking the public. The protesters need to keep up the pressure, in a peaceful and nonviolent way, of course.
