Arakan News Agency
Military cooperation with Myanmar is currently “totally untenable” due to the treatment of Rohingyas, Labor’s shadow defence minister has said.
The comments on Tuesday came after a speech to the National Press Club in which Richard Marles argued Australia should develop its domestic defence industry.
Australia has been criticised for continued cooperation with the military of Myanmar despite its treatment of Muslim Rohingya in the Arakan state, which the United Nations has said appears to be a textbook example of genocide.
Asked if a future Labor government would follow the example of the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, Canada and France in cutting military ties, Marles described treatment of Rohingya as an “appalling atrocity”.
Marles noted that Myanmar was transitioning from autocratic rule to democracy and “there was … an opportunity to see a greater defence cooperation program with the Myanmar military”.
“But what has occurred now with the Rohingyas makes that in my view completely untenable,” he said.
“Now, actually making that comment pains me, because I feel that in time it is exactly the kind of country we should be working with and exactly the kind of military you would want to have exposed to the way our military operates, but right now, given what has occurred to that minority, I think it’s totally untenable.”
Earlier, in his speech Marles argued Australia needs to develop a coherent underlying rationale for a domestic defence industry and use the next big tender, the awarding of the frigates contract, to ensure most of the intellectual property for the project is based in Australia.
Following on from confirmation on Monday that the government-owned shipbuilder ASC will cut 223 jobs in South Australia ahead of the air warfare destroyer project winding down, Marles used the speech on Tuesday to argue the Turnbull government should insist the multi-billion dollar frigate build be carried out by “a truly Australian company” to help boost local defence industry capability.
Marles noted that Myanmar was transitioning from autocratic rule to democracy and “there was … an opportunity to see a greater defence cooperation program with the Myanmar military”.
“But what has occurred now with the Rohingyas makes that in my view completely untenable,” he said.
“Ultimately I believe that as a nation we have not made the kind of deep decision to have a national defence industry in the way that decision has been made by Israel, Britain or for that matter Sweden,” Marles said.
“There will be those who argue that we have neither the centuries of defence industry tradition enjoyed by Britain nor the existential threat experienced by Israel that would yield such a deep national decision”.
“In part of course that’s true. Yet the comparison does highlight the magnitude of the decision we need to make if we really want to build a meaningful national defence industry in Australia. And this is possible to do without the tradition or the existential threat”.
In the speech, Marles pointed to a default view in both the military and civilian arms of defence that the objective of procurement is securing the best hardware and equipment available, not developing a local industry. “In addition I have often heard the comment that the defence budget is about Australia’s defence and ought not be used as a proxy for industry policy”.
“That a number of our senior public servants and military leaders should have these views is not unfair,” he said. “We have never really asked them to think differently”.
Marles said those attitudes won’t shift until a government makes a strategic case for an Australian defence industry, not an industry policy case.
He said at the ALP’s national conference in July, the party will likely sign off on a strategic case which includes ensuring Australia possesses sovereign capability to maintain and sustain the ADF and its equipment.
The policy will also reference building technological capability and workforce skills within Australia’s broader industrial base, and enabling Australia to project its strategic weight through an exporting defence industry.
Marles noted that countries such as Israel have used the defence industry to boost domestic capability in the tech sector, which has other benefits for economies.
Pyne on Monday said the Turnbull government had delivered a coherent and cohesive policy with clear goals.
“We seek to achieve, by 2028, a matured, innovative Australian defence industry with greatly enhanced levels of competitiveness in the international marketplace,” the defence industry minister told a Canberra thinktank.
“What we want is a sovereign defence industry with the capability, readiness and resilience to help meet Australia’s defence needs, to the greatest extent possible, within our own borders”.
Pyne said it was in Australia’s national interest to boost capability both in strategic and economic terms and he said the government was fully committed to Australian participation to the highest extent possible.
But he said the nature of global supply chains today meant that no one country could be fully self-sufficient in its defence or defence industry. “Even if Australia wanted to substantially grow the scale of industrial capability manufactured in Australia, it would not be cost-effective to do so in all areas”.
