Australia’s two major parties want Australia to be a top-tier arms exporter, but the current system of documenting those exports is secretive and convoluted, writes Andrew Bartlett.
THE INTERNATIONAL BODY monitoring the arms trade has labelled Australia’s military export process as not meaningfully transparent.
The criticism is contained in the latest annual report from the ATT Monitor, which assesses compliance with the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
“Not meaningfully transparent” is another way of saying the Australian Government is engaging in excessive secrecy when it comes to who we are exporting military goods to, of what value and what safeguards are in place.
Are our exports being used to commit human rights abuses or war crimes?
The Government and defence department officials have claimed on numerous occasions that Australia’s military export regime is rigorous and the permit approval process is tightly controlled.
But the Government makes it very difficult to scrutinise these claims because the reports it publishes are very unclear and convoluted.
Strategic Analysis Australia put it this way in 2025:
‘...what makes it into the public domain is nonsensical and simply thrown out there with no explanation that would allow the Parliament or public to make sense of it. That seems to be how the Government and Department of Defence like it.’
It is the stated goal of both the major parties to expand the billion-dollar arms exports sector so Australia becomes one of the top ten exporters in the world.
But this is taking place with almost no proper public or parliamentary scrutiny.
Australia’s lack of transparency in military trade is of major concern to many in the community.
A year ago, 64 civil society organisations called for a parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s burgeoning military trade.
The Quakers Australia report, ‘Australia’s Opaque Arms Trade and Obligations Under International Law’, noted that Australia exports to many regimes accused of serious human rights violations or atrocities.
The call for greater transparency was also supported by several members of the Federal Parliament cross-bench.
So far that call has fallen on deaf ears and the Albanese Government has not even acknowledged that a problem exists.
Commenting on the latest ATT Monitor annual report, Quakers Australia researcher Jessica Morrison said:
Australia is exporting massive amounts of military goods, with no public or parliamentary scrutiny about where these are going or what they are being used for. This is unacceptable – it is no wonder there is no public trust in our military export system.
Australia was once a leader in arms control, but has fallen far behind international best practice. Since the Government policy is to turbo charge the military export industry, it must also strengthen safeguards.
Australia’s military exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are a clear example of how government secrecy is hampering the public’s right to clear information about the arms trade.
For almost a year, Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR) has been pressing the Government to be open and accountable about what we are exporting there and where it might be ending up.
The UAE is accused of providing weapons and resources to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, where a brutal civil war has seen thousands of civilians killed.
Despite this, Australia continues to export military equipment to the UAE worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Under the ATT, which Australia has signed, states are prohibited from transferring military equipment if it is likely to be used in attacks directed against civilians.
But the Albanese Government has refused to answer numerous questions about these exports.
It’s also refused to say whether any of the UAE export permits have been reviewed in light of the appalling bloodshed and alleged war crimes that have occurred over the past few years.
Instead, it keeps pointing to the original permit approvals as sound, but the situation in both Sudan and the UAE has changed dramatically since many of those approvals were granted.
It is now obvious that the Australian arms export regime needs a complete overhaul and that should start with a full parliamentary inquiry, so that these issues can be fully examined.
At present, the Government’s reporting system is so convoluted and secretive that the public and the Parliament have no full picture of our arms exports and how those exports are being used.
The latest ATT Monitor report should be a wake-up call for the Government. It’s time for full transparency.
Andrew Bartlett is the president of Australians for War Powers Reform and a former Senator for Queensland.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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