Zennie image of Christopher Pyne
(Image: Zennie/Private Media)

This is part three in a series. For the full series, go here.

Christopher Pyne has been jumping up and down like the Energizer Bunny over the AUKUS submarine deal. And why wouldn’t he, given his unique position in the burgeoning defence business?

“This is an outstanding decision on many fronts,” Pyne wrote in his local newspaper, Adelaide’s The Advertiser.

“The new submarine yard will go alongside [Adelaide’s Osborne shipyard] to the north of the current perimeter. It will be the most modern and one of the busiest submarine building facilities in the world.

“Adelaide will be a hub of brilliant minds, well-paid people and a destination for the world’s brightest and best. The world’s most important defence companies will need to be set up here and the ones that are already in Adelaide will expand.”

Pyne is a South Australian and a former Coalition defence minister, which clearly informs the unbridled joy he has expressed about the deal signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego earlier this month.

Pyne has also crafted a post-politics business career which capitalises directly on his time in government. As minister for defence Industry in the Turnbull government, he was responsible for unleashing a new industry in defence manufacturing in Australia, with the government’s 2016 defence white paper and its promise of a $195 billion “investment” marking the beginning of a defence gold rush.

Birth of a business ‘council’ 

In late November 2020, then prime minister Scott Morrison hurriedly departed a lengthy cabinet meeting, just concluded, to attend a special event. He had agreed to launch a venture called the Australia-UAE Business Council at the invitation of former cabinet colleague Pyne.

Morrison spoke warmly of Pyne, calling him “my good friend Christopher”. Dignitaries present from the UAE could have no doubt that Pyne was a man of great connections — a vital qualification for anyone doing business in the Arab Gulf. 

“I’m very confident that the Australia-UAE Business Council will open doors in the years ahead,” Morrison concluded. “I congratulate all of you for being a part of it as we’ve kicked it off today and look forward to its great success in the future.”

The date was significant. Pyne had left Parliament and ceased his role as defence minister 18 months before. Under the Morrison government’s ministerial standards, this was the exact time Pyne needed to wait before he could “lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, Parliament, public service or defence force on any matters on which they have had official dealings as minister”.

From that point on, Pyne’s venture operated with the full blessing of the Morrison government.  

The “council” has an advisory board which includes Australia’s ambassador to the UAE and the UAE’s ambassador to Australia.

The site features a photograph of Pyne with an entourage including senior officers from the Australian Defence Force in full military uniform. The image gives Pyne exactly the kind of authority necessary to crack the lucrative UAE market, especially when it comes to defence sales.

Christopher Pyne with Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, flanked by officials (Image: Supplied)

The council, co-chaired by Pyne, looks in every respect as though it is an Australian government entity. Yet the appearance is deceptive. It is in fact a business entity owned by Pyne’s company, GC Advisory Pty Ltd. 

Crikey‘s investigation shows that the Australia-UAE Business Council name was registered with ASIC on October 25 2018. The owner was listed as the trustee for GC Advisory Trading Trust. According to the official record this is a discretionary trading trust with its main source of income being from “trading activities”.

The trust is in turn linked to GC Advisory Pty Ltd which was set up by Pyne’s former political staffer Adam Howard at a time when Pyne was defence minister. Pyne joined GC Advisory as a director in July 2019, a little over a month after he ceased to be defence minister.

The council’s board of advisers, alongside Australia’s UAE ambassador, includes the CEO of Babcock International Group Australasia, a major defence supplier. The council’s “foundation members” include more defence companies, notably Electro Optic Systems (EOS), an Australian company which was awarded a $410 million contract to supply remote weapons systems to an unnamed customer in 2018. The announcement was made at an EOS function attended by Pyne when he was defence industry minister. The “unnamed customer” was later revealed to be the UAE.

So what exactly is the status of the Australia-UAE Business Council?

As well as Morrison’s backing, it carries an official endorsement from then trade minister Simon Birmingham. The current Trade Minister, Don Farrell (another South Australian), has also given his official endorsement. 

There are two other business groups operating in the UAE — both are not-for-profit associations established by Australian businesses and function as networking bodies, usually with the friendly support of the Australian embassy.

The Pyne venture, by contrast, has the look of an official government trade body while it promotes the interests of defence industry players. 

Crikey asked the Defence Department if it was appropriate for Pyne’s privately owned entity to use photographs of Australian military officials and whether or not he or his company had sought permission before using the photo.

Defence has protocols for the use of its imagery for commercial purposes but it did not respond to our request. We sought the business council’s response to our questions but again received no reply.

The questions were regarding the appropriateness of using imagery of Australian military officials on the council website, given that the council is a private enterprise rather than a government body; whether the owners of the website sought permission from the Defence Department or the officials involved; and whether the department accepted that the website is designed to give the impression that it is an official Australian government site and enterprise.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade responded that the Australia-UAE Business Council (AUB) was “an association made up of businesses from Australia and the UAE to promote two-way trade and investment opportunities for its members”.

On the question of using ADF officers as props, the department said it had “no role in developing or approving its website content”.

Please contact David Hardaker via his secure email dhardaker@protonmail.com if you wish to pass on information for Crikey’s AUKUS investigation.

Crikey wishes to acknowledge the work of independent Canberra defence industry specialist, Michelle Fahy, in providing key research for this report.