'Sacrifice': Four Corners looks at the Australian War Memorial's weapons ties
Tonight, ABC's Four Corners, with Michelle Fahy as a researcher, investigates the War Memorial’s ties to weapons makers and its controversial transformation and expansion
Dear Subscriber
More on tonight’s ABC Four Corners program below. A must-watch!
Firstly, warm thanks for your ongoing interest in our work.
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This is an update on what’s been happening at Undue Influence.
As this newsletter shows, our detailed work last year on Australia’s weapons exports to Israel and the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s refusal to investigate the Robodebt referrals proved critical, given the mainstream media’s lack of interest in properly pursuing either of these issues.
Revolving door database update
You may recall that in August 2023 we announced that we had been successful in securing a grant to research and develop a database to highlight the extent of the revolving door between the government/military/public service and the weapons industry in Australia. We had expected to complete the project in 2024.
However, then came the shocking and deadly terror attacks led by Hamas on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. These were followed by the vastly disproportionate response from Israel against Palestinians in Gaza in what had already been termed a “plausible” genocide by the world’s highest court in January 2024. (Amnesty International has since concluded Israel is conducting a genocide. See Amnesty’s December 2024 report.)
The Israeli military has been using its F-35 fighter jets during its indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza. Every F-35 fighter jet built, including Israeli ones, contains Australian parts and components.
To our dismay, the Australian government developed and repeated for many months a simplistic, misleading sentence claiming that Australia was not sending weapons to Israel and had not done so for five years. The Australian mainstream media failed in its duty to scrutinise and expose this propaganda.
As a result, we decided we had to set aside the database project temporarily and dig out what facts we could about Australia’s weapons exports to Israel.
Weapons exports
We lodged a freedom of information request for weapons export approvals data for several Middle East countries, including Israel.
The Defence Department ignored our request that the data be supplied in the same format the department had been willing to use in previous years (showing munitions list and dual use export approvals separately). Instead, the department amalgamated the data into a single set of figures, obscuring the picture of recent weapons exports to Israel. The department neither acknowledged nor explained its refusal to meet the terms of our FOI request using the same format it had been happy to use previously.
We next researched and produced a list of Australian companies involved in the F-35 supply chain as part of a collaborative global project being coordinated by researchers in the UK (see it here).
Then we investigated the government’s misinformation about Australia’s arms exports – into the F-35 global supply chain in particular – in a series of ground-breaking articles. See here, here and here.
Our detailed reporting forced additional disclosures from the Defence Department during parliamentary hearings. It also forced senior government ministers into admitting – after months of stonewalling – that Australia was still supplying parts and components into the F-35 global supply chain, something that international law prohibits when there is a risk those exports would or could be used in serious human rights violations.
Both Deputy Prime Minister (and Defence Minister) Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong attempted to gloss over this forced disclosure by describing Australia’s F-35 exports as “non-lethal”.
This was one of the lowest points in public commentary on weapons exports by senior members of the Australian government we have witnessed, particularly given the grave context.
National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and Robodebt
The second half of last year was equally intense. It was kicked off by the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s statement in June 2024 that it would not investigate the Robodebt Royal Commission referrals, but would focus on “ensuring lessons learnt” instead - a decision that shocked the nation.
We have a professional association with Jommy Tee, an online researcher and investigator, who lodged requests under Freedom of Information seeking documents relating to Commissioner Paul Brereton’s conflict of interest in relation to the Robodebt decision. The documents Tee obtained, although highly redacted, revealed simply extraordinary goings-on inside the NACC.
We consulted top legal jurists Stephen Charles and Anthony Whealy and the result was a series of damning articles on the NACC’s serious mishandling of this matter.
Throughout it all, for months, the mainstream media ignored this nationally significant story that the head of the National Anti-Corruption Commission had failed to recuse himself from the Robodebt decision despite a self-admitted conflict of interest in relation to it.
The publication in October 2024 of the NACC Inspector’s report into this and other aspects of the NACC’s flawed decision-making process on the Robodebt referrals vindicated our reporting. The NACC has been forced to revisit its decision. In February, it announced it will, after all, conduct an investigation into the Robodebt referrals.
Our Robodebt reporting:
Brereton’s NACC cloaked in military-grade secrecy (3 July 2024)
When is a ‘recusal’ not a recusal? (21 August 2024)
NACC boss breaks own integrity policy over Robodebt (24 August 2024)
NACC’s year-long Robodebt decision: just two pages long (28 August 2024)
‘Recused’ NACC boss Brereton at Robodebt meeting (30 August 2024)
NACC boss ‘misled Dreyfus’ over Robodebt (4 September 2024)
Brereton’s Robodebt ‘recusal’ claims a sham: Top ex-judge (9 September 2024, The Klaxon)
Robodebt ‘conflicts’ extend beyond Brereton (30 September 2024)
2024 ended with our reporting on the NACC’s mishandling of another investigation: the Defence Department’s 2020 Thales munition factory contract, despite numerous red flags contained in a scorching Australian National Audit Office report into this procurement.
We have so far published three articles on this subject. The investigation is continuing.
WATCH! Four Corners, 8:30pm tonight (Monday 10 March)
In the final months of what was an exceptionally full year, Michelle was invited to join the ABC’s Four Corners team as a researcher for a program reported by Mark Willacy and produced by Jonathan Miller.
The program, Sacrifice, investigates the Australian War Memorial’s ties to weapons makers and its controversial expansion and transformation.
** Watch the promo here. **
Revolving door database: where to next?
Our main priority for this first half of 2025 is to complete work on this, our largest investigative project to date. Although this means we are no less busy than last year, it is likely that from your viewpoint - as our valued subscribers - there will be fewer posts and newsletters from us during this period, given the longer-term nature of the database project. It will be worth the wait.
Once completed, the database project will be officially launched and there will be plenty of obvious activity at that time!
We are continuing with additional smaller investigative projects alongside the database project. We’ll keep in touch about developments with those.
All the best for 2025 and thank you for your ongoing support.
Michelle Fahy
🙏such important work
The "non-lethal" F-35 components manufactured by Australia enable Israeli F-35-I jets to fly and drop LETHAL BOMBS on Gaza and other communities in neighbouring nations with total impunity. Both Marles and Wong are intentionally devious with their choice of "weasel words".