Expanding Australia’s defence industry exports

EXPANDING the contribution of Australian enterprises to Australia’s defence industry exports will be explored at a public hearing in Canberra on Friday.

A range of companies which export defence products and services will appear before the Defence Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

These include Aspen Medical, an Australian-owned, global provider of healthcare solutions across a wide range of sectors. Also giving evidence will be Austal, which in addition to designing and manufacturing commercial and defence ships, provides support services, including through life support, integrated logistics support, vessel sustainment and systems support through their global supply network.

The Sub-Committee will also hear from the Australian Business Defence Industry, an association with membership ranging from large global stakeholders (primes) to small companies, and the Australian Industry Group Defence Council, which represents Australian defence businesses and supports ADF personnel.

Barriers to increasing Australia’s export performance identified by these submissions will be explored at the hearing. These impediments include;  management of intellectual property; an over-reliance on large off-shore companies; and difficulty selling products not in service with the ADF.

Chair of the Defence Sub-Committee, Senator David Fawcett (SA), said the hearing will provide an opportunity to explore these issues and other barriers to expanding exports of defence goods and services produced by Australian companies.

“Defence industry should be seen as fundamental to Australia’s defence capability, which means we need it to be innovative and sustainable. One way to achieve this is for the Government to encourage, and where appropriate, facilitate export to suitable nations,” Senator Fawcett said.

The inquiry's terms of reference are available on the Committee’s website.

Public hearing

Date/Time: Friday, 13 February 2015, 9:00am to 4:30pm.

Location: Parliament House Committee Room 1S4.

Organisations: Australian Business Defence Industry Group, Australian Industry Group Defence Council, QinetiQ, ASPI, Austal, BAE Systems Australia, Northrop Grumman, Aspen Medical and MBDA Systems.

The hearing will be audio broadcast live at www.aph.gov.au/live.

http://www.aph.gov.au/jfadt

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