Board of Directors:
Air Marshal E.J. McCormack AO (Retd) (Chair)
Dr Alan Stephens OAM (Editor)
Air Vice-Marshal J. Blackburn AO (Retd) (Deputy Chair)
Air Vice-Marshal B. O'Loghlin AO (Retd)
Major General Jim Molan AO DSC (Retd)
Air Commodore Ian Pearson (RAAFAR)
Commodore Geoff Ledger DSC AM (Retd)
Air Commodore Graham Bentley (Retd)
Ms Katherine Ziesing
Wing Commander L.J. Halvorson MBE (Retd) (Exec Off)
Emphasis added.
Note the logo of the organisation is the F-35.
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The "about" section has this to say:
The Sir Richard Williams Foundation is an independent research organisation whose purpose is to promote the development and effective implementation of National Security and Defence policies specific to Australia's unique geopolitical environment and values.
At the bottom of the web page is this:
If interest is Quickstep. They received government sponsoring on the order of $10M plus for the F-35 program.
We have this:
Board of Directors:
Tony Quick (Chairman)
Philippe Odouard (Managing Director)
Mark Jenkins
Bruce Griffiths
Peter Cook
Air Marshal Errol McCormack (Ret'd) AO
David Singleton
David Wills
Emphasis added.
3 comments:
"Independent"... LOL. More like a lobby group funded by the American Military Industrial Complex. All the big names are there, Boeing, Lockmart, Raytheon, etc, etc...
Oh, and that logo looks more like an F-22 to me, but y'know... Same difference.
Here's another conflict meets interest.
Australian Aviation (F-35/Super Hornet/Growler cheerleaders)
Board of these guys you'll find on on this website:
Gerard Frawley (Managing Editor)
Andrew McLaughlin (former Deputy Editor)
Dane
Raymond
John N
Observer
Foo
Steve
Darren
Anon
Damian
Roger etc
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute was established in 2008 by the Howard Government: “...it will be a high-performing Commonwealth company which provides fresh independent and non-partisan ideas, and promotes discussion among the public service, academia and the wider public on Australia's defence and strategic policy choices.”
ASPI receives inflation indexed government funding of $3,188,122 for 2012/13 according to recently updated info on their website. Not long back, logo imagery for major defence industry corporations also appeared on that site although has since disappeared, but maybe there is also funding from those sources.
Traditional government policy generating processes once involved public exhibition of a Green Paper inviting nationwide comment for generation of a White Paper. That process now seems short-circuited as there was no transparent process for Defence White Paper 2013 and contributing agencies are unknown. Presumably, they may have included ASPI which was much involved in drafting DWP2008.
The influence of defence industry lobbyists in Canberra has become very pervasive with multiple retired politicians and senior military officers in particular connected with major arms manufacturers and receiving obscene emoluments. Many contentious hardware acquisitions over the past decade have involved such people.
In other forums, there has been mention of a more 'collegiate' approach regarding input toward defence planning, which sort of points to increasing influence of lobbying agencies and lesser receptivity of wider public input.
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