Marles wedged between defence industry rock and a hard Greens place on exports to Israel

“Let’s be clear, we don’t supply weapons to Israel,” Minister Marles said during the interview on ABC Insiders on 10 August, discussing F-35 and armoured steel components made in Australia.

“We’re an F-35 country and we have been that for a couple of decades. And that is a multilateral arrangement with supply chains organised by Lockheed Martin in the United States and has multiple suppliers in respect of all of those supply chains. So, really, that is a very different question. And we are a part of that process.

“We are not supplying weapons to Israel … We’ve seen a lot of misinformation in relation to what Australia is doing here.”

The Australian government is performing a balancing act as it fails to recognise defence industry innovation and exports while simultaneously attempting to pacify the Australian Greens who allege that exports of armoured steel, critical materials and F-35 weapons parts to Israel, a key Western ally, are immoral.

“Watching Defence Minister Richard Marles refuse to answer basic questions about Australia’s export of weapons parts and defence material to Israel is excruciating,” Greens senator and defence and foreign affairs spokesperson David Shoebridge said.

“The Australian public knows that the Albanese government is permitting the export of armoured steel, F35 weapons parts and other critical materials to Israel and wants it to stop. If the Albanese government stopped the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, then their F-35 fleet would be grounded.

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“Australia is a key part of the F35 fighter jet program. We are the only place in the world that makes parts like the bomb bay doors and we operate as one of the few regional distribution hubs.”

Robert Dougherty

Robert is a senior journalist who has previously worked for Seven West Media in Western Australia, as well as Fairfax Media and Australian Community Media in New South Wales. He has produced national headlines, photography and videography of emergency services, business, community, defence and government news across Australia. Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Public Relations and Journalism at Curtin University, attended student exchange program with Fudan University and holds Tier 1 General Advice certification for Kaplan Professional. Reach out via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via LinkedIn.