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Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy has lashed out at the Greens party for tarnishing defence industry workers and undermining confidence in Defence.
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Minister Conroy made the comments while speaking to members of the media and industry representatives after a tour of the production line for the Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle at the Thales production facility in Bendigo, Victoria, this week.
The response stems from repeated accusations that Australia is supplying defence weaponry to Israel for use against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
“Let me be very clear, and this applies not only to Thales but the entire Australian defence industry. We have not exported a single defence weapon to Israel over the last five years,” Minister Conroy said.
“The only permits for exports are componentry that have gone to Israel since the conflict began in October last year was for ADF equipment to be repaired or upgraded in Israel and returned to Australia for use by the Australian Defence Force.
“We are not supplying weapons to Israel and anyone who says otherwise is lying and I’m sorry to be really frank about this but it besmirches the names of the 100,000 people who work in the Australian defence industry that’s suggesting that they’re complicit in the genocide or anything like that is a flat-out lie. It damages morale and it undermines confidence.
“I’ll give you an example closer to my home, the Greens political party have been an absolute disgrace in this area going around lying and disserting the names of Australian workers so much so that they accused the great Australian company called Varley who are producing parts for the Australian Army of producing missiles that are then being used by the Israeli defence force to destroy buildings in Gaza.
“That was a lie, and that had such a close impact in our community that apprentices sought to quit Varley and had to be talked down and explained that they are not supplying parts to Israel.
“This is the divisive effect that people like the Greens political party are having in our community, not only is it undermining community confidence, it’s undermining our national security, it’s a disgrace and they need to stop.”
In addition earlier this month, Greens party officials drew criticism for saying national war memorials were “not politically neutral spaces”, following a series of graffiti attacks.
The comments were made in the wake of vandalism of the Australian National Korean War Memorial, Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial, and the Australian Army National Memorial with pro-Palestine messages.
“If we are to believe that the men and women of the ADF gave their lives in wars and conflicts to defend such freedoms, then you have to engage with the reality that protesting that painting is a form of speech,” Greens senator Jordon Steele-John said.
“The Australian Constitution contains no explicit commitment to freedom of speech.”
Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy, speaking to Sky News Afternoon Agenda, said the Greens party was out of touch with international thinking on Defence spending and military support.
“I met with politicians from the German Greens party, for example (at the Munich Security Conference), who are a far cry from the Australian Greens, who support strong Defence spending because they’re seeing what’s happening in the world and they know that a strong deterrence impact of a strong military is critical to preserving democracy around the world,” he said.
