Tie Me Defense Cooperation Treaty Down, Sport

Posted by Clif Burns at 7:09 pm on October 31, 2012
Category: Arms Export

According to this story in Perth Now, the Australian Senate has finally approved the Defense Cooperation Treaty between the United States and Australia, which was approved by the U.S. Senate back in September 2010. The treaty was originally signed by both the United States back in 2007.

According to the above linked report, Australian opposition in its Senate to the treaty was based on the blinding speed with which it was being rushed through:

Senator Ludlum suggested the bill was being rushed through the Senate to provide a positive photo opportunity for Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Defence Minister Stephen Smith when they greet visiting senior US officials in Perth next month.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta are scheduled to attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) there on November 14.

Perhaps the Australians have, or at least Senator Ludlum has, a different idea about what it means to rush something.

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One Comment:

Cliff, with the same tongue firmly in cheek as is often the norm in your blog – when talking about ‘fast moving’ and ‘rush’ at Government levels, I don’t think the US has much to make fun of (How long have you guys been “reforming the ITAR”?)
The Australian media has been lead by the nose about his Bill in the last few months after several years of totally ignoring the subject and what they are reporting does not hold the respect for the facts that Journalists claim.
What the Senator was referring to was that in the space of a couple of weeks the Bill has gone from being stalled inside Australian DOD to being released for final passage in the house. DOD chose not to inform anyone outside Government that this was about to happen so we were all caught unawares. The Bill and its supporting regulations are still in need of lots of work and DOD had assured us all that until the issues were dealt with it would not go back to the house. It is only in the last couple of months that the University/Research sectors got interested enough that they raised their objections to the legislation. That discussion is quit heated, often misinformed and continues today.
Then Senator Clinton’s visit appeared on the horizon and with the local federal Government in trouble in the poles it was just too good a photo opportunity to miss. Hence the Bill was rushed to the floor, and rushed is an accurate summation of the events that followed.