Government backflip on Chinese uniforms for our troops
10-February-2010
The Minster for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, has indicated that only today he overturned a decision to buy Chinese made camouflage fabrics for the Australian Defence Force.
It was revealed in Senate Estimates today that this Chinese tender was 10% cheaper than the Bruck tender, only saving $1.5 million.
He has contradicted a Defence statement of yesterday and the Labor candidate for Indi who claimed this morning only some of the fabric would be sourced in China – three versions, who do we believe?
The secret decision taken seven months ago to source uniforms from China has only been exposed this week.
In a case of penny-pinching taken to ridiculous lengths, Defence awarded a uniform contract in the full knowledge that the contractor was intending to source the fabric in China.
Current Australian combat uniforms are made from fabric produced by an Australian manufacturer – Bruck Textiles in Wangaratta. Bruck has worked for years in conjunction with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in developing the technology to ensure the spectral qualities of the fabric afforded maximum utility to soldiers.
It seems that this intellectual property would find its way to a Chinese manufacturer. This is not acceptable. It does not make sense to give these specifications to a country which supplies military equipment to third parties who may well be future adversaries.
The Government has deliberately withheld information from the Australian public, and worse still, our troops.
Although Minister Combet has temporarily backed down, I call on him to clarify what will happen at the end of the current contract with Bruck Textiles in Wangaratta. This should never have been allowed in the first place.
Why won’t the Minister guarantee the 400 workers in Wangaratta that their jobs won’t be exported to China?
What other defence contracts is the Minister aware of that could jeopardise Australian jobs and industries?
Mr Combet himself seems to have forgotten his own announcement of July 2009 that combat clothing would be a priority industry capability (PIC) for Australia, that is, a failure to provide for combat clothing capability in Australia would undermine our defence self-reliance and ADF operational capability.
The Government must guarantee they will source material for our troops uniforms within Australia.
If a person is going to put their life on the line serving our country at the very least their uniform can be made in our country.