Former prime minister Scott Morrison’s announcement that he’s set to affix DYNE Maritime, a enterprise capital agency targeted on rising army applied sciences, makes him the newest politician to take enterprise alternatives associated to AUKUS.
Of all the previous MPs and senators who’ve turn out to be concerned in non-public AUKUS enterprise, Morrison is likely to be the one with the closest connection to the subject material: he was accountable for creating the defence pact alongside US President Joe Biden and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson. However others on Crikey’s record have had very shut entry to AUKUS decision-makers as properly.
Morrison
The previous Liberal chief who’s retiring from Parliament has confirmed he’s set to affix DYNE Maritime, a $157 million fund launched in October with the purpose of investing in twin use applied sciences — innovations which have army and civilian functions. In response to The Australian Monetary Overview, DYNE Maritime has its sights set on applied sciences associated to AUKUS.
Morrison, one of many leaders who launched AUKUS in 2021, advised The Australian he will likely be strategic adviser to the agency, alongside former Trump administration secretary of state and CIA chief Mike Pompeo. He can even take one other job alongside a special former Trump adviser: Morrison has been employed because the vice-chair of American World Methods, headed by former US nationwide safety adviser Robert O’Brien.
Arthur Sinodinos
As Crikey reported final week, the current US ambassador and former Liberal trade minister has joined an outfit referred to as AUKUS Discussion board. As co-chair of the enterprise networking group, Sinodinos has been criss-crossing the nation to advertise enterprise alternatives for regional firms geared toward “unleashing the regional energy of AUKUS”. As Australia’s ambassador in Washington till early final 12 months, Sinodinos was round for the formation of AUKUS and has posted to LinkedIn an image of himself and Biden in entrance of an AUKUS banner.
Joel Fitzgibbon
Fitzgibbon, a former Labor defence and agriculture minister, is the opposite co-chair of AUKUS Discussion board. He described the undertaking in a LinkedIn put up as being geared toward “maximising Australian trade participation within the AUKUS pact”. A Labor old-timer in Parliament from 1996 to 2022, and having been in cupboard alongside some present key ministers, Fitzgibbon has plenty of helpful connections in Canberra. Amongst his post-politics social media posts are footage the place he poses with Defence Business Minister Pat Conroy.
Christopher Pyne
The previous Liberal defence minister raised eyebrows in Canberra when he started taking defence consulting work in 2019, instantly after leaving Parliament. Since then AUKUS has made non-public defence companies growth, and Pyne hasn’t slept on the chance. Final April, his foyer agency Pyne & Companions funded a bipartisan junket to Washington DC and New York, the place the likes of Liberal Senator James Paterson and Labor MP Meryl Swanson have been launched to key US defence figures, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. Crikey has beforehand chronicled Pyne’s AUKUS-linked enterprise pursuits.
Joe Hockey
One other former Liberal cupboard minister and US ambassador, Hockey has in depth networks in each DC and Canberra which can be helpful for making the most of AUKUS. The ex-treasurer’s Bondi Companions advisory agency reckons “the alternatives for companies on either side of the Pacific Ocean will enhance considerably” given the elevated defence collaboration between the US and Australia. Simply months after Morrison’s preliminary AUKUS announcement, Hockey and funding agency Ellerston Capital launched the 1941 Fund. As The Australian put it in a gushing article asserting the initiative, it’s “Australia’s first pure non-public funding play into nationwide safety … [backed by] a gaggle of high-net-worth patriots from the US and Australia seeking to put huge licks of personal capital behind dual-use expertise in defence, intelligence, cyber and area, in addition to industrial makes use of”.
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