There has been an outcry over the Government’s proposal to become a major arms exporter and a disturbing further development is a proposal through a Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade inquiry regarding a formal bipartisan defence agreement between the major parties.
There is already significant bipartisanship on defence and security matters and if such an agreement were to be formalised, it would entrench even further the dangerous lack of debate on our foreign policy.
Submissions are currently open to the inquiry and we urge members and others to make a submission.
A submission from Dr Andrew Carr from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at ANU says, “bipartisanship as it currently operates in Australia is not only failing to meet its expectations but actively impeding Australia’s national security. As such it would be an error to adopt a formal bipartisan structure for defence policy. Instead, it is more politics and contestation of defence policy via our elected representatives which Australia needs to deal with these uncertain times.”
the current submissions (17 only) are on this page: