Australia/Military

Australia/Military   (Armed Forces)
Australian Army soldiers support New South Wales Police with enforcing a lockdown in Sydney, 2021.
Exposed by	David McBride

The armed forces of Australia, the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Medical Countermeasures Consortium

In November 2012, the government announced an agreement enabling the Department of Defence and the Department of Health and Ageing to establish a Medical Countermeasures Consortium involving Australia, USA, UK and Canada. "The proposed Consortium will coordinate scientific research in developing medical responses across the defence, national security and public health sectors in our four countries" and "augment Australia’s ability to manage the consequences of pandemics, emerging infectious diseases, extreme natural hazards and incidents involving Chemical, Biological and Radiological (CBR) threats," said Minister for Defence Science and Personnel Warren Snowdon. Medical countermeasures include drugs, vaccines and diagnostic devices. Snowdon said a Whole-of-Government approach with international health and defence partners would help deliver this protection.

Covid jab campaign

As in many other countries, the Covid jab campaign, including distribution and propaganda, was run by the military.

In April 2020, The Australian Defence Force (ADF) announced it was expanding its support to the national COVID-19 pandemic response with the establishment of Operation COVID-19 ASSIST. Led by Major General Paul Kenny, its role is to coordinate and deliver the military aspects of ADF's support to civilian agencies. Major General Kenny previously was Director General of Special Operations and Counter Terrorism Operations at Special Operations Command – Australia (2011–12). He was embedded with US special forces, and Deputy Director of Operations at United States Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida (2015–17).

In June 2021, Lt Gen John Frewen was appointed head of the national Covid vaccine taskforce, in a role called "the office of the coordinator general". General Frewen’s role circumvented the normal bureaucratic paths and allowed him to deal directly with groups and companies involved in the rollout, meet with state and territory leaders and chief health officers, and report directly to the prime minister.

Frewen was the national commander of all ADF personnel in the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, in 2017. Frewen said the National COVID Vaccine Taskforce was responsible for engagement with states and territories, and the distribution of "vaccines", plus to ensure confidence in the "vaccine" rollout and to ensure as many Australians were "vaccinated" as early as possible; and to plan the next phase of the Australian government’s Covid-19 "vaccination" communications campaign.

In April 2021, navy Commodore Eric Young was appointed to manage logistics associated with program. He has previously been deployed to the Middle East, incorporating staff roles in United States Navy platforms, and Director General of the United States Force Posture Initiatives in the Australian forces, which has the objective to improve interoperability between Australian and US armed forces.

The names of the other members of the taskforce have not been made public, but include Colonel Spencer Norris, officer Cate Caldwell. Dr Lucas de Toca from the Department of Health was First Assistant Secretary, Caroline Roga, Yvette Sims, Sarah Duvall, Erin Anderson,Simone Ellacott,Ann Ronning,Sally Cooper,Tavish Roncon,and Katrina Brooks,Lisa Zwankhuizen.

Interoperablilty

Interoperablilty with British imperial and later US forces remains a core feature of Australian military procurement. In 2022, Charles Flynn, commanding general of the United States Army in the Pacific spoke of the Australian forces not only being "interoperable", but "interchangeable": "similar attack aviation, similar lift aviation, similar ground combat vehicles, similar air defence, short-rang,long-range, similar fires, networks."

AUKUS

Full article: AUKUS

AUKUS is an "enhanced trilateral security partnership" between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, which was announced on 15 September 2021. The "partnership" mostly involves Australia buying lots of overpriced clunkers from the US military-industrial complex, for then to be exposed in the front line against China.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
AIJAC/Rambam Programs/2015	“Our exchange on strategic issues soon demonstrated a whole range of areas where our military forces [ IDF and the Australian military ] could learn from one another. These ranged from defence industry co-operation (our army has purchased an Israeli battle management system) to counter-insurgency, urban intelligence gathering, coalition warfighting, countering improvised explosive devices, military education, the use of reservists, airpower developments (both countries are acquiring F-35 joint strike fighters), military procurement processes and maritime security (Israel is developing offshore gas fields). Issues related to counter-terrorism and social resilience were highlighted as common interests of both states.”	Anthony Bergin	2015
Peter Dutton	““It would be inconceivable that we wouldn’t support the US in an action if the US chose to take that action...maybe there are circumstances where we wouldn’t take up that option, (but) I can’t conceive of those circumstances.””	Peter Dutton	13 November 2021

 

Employees on Wikispooks

Employee	Job	Appointed	End	Description
John Frewen	Commander of all Australian Defence personnel in the Middle East	2017	2017
John Frewen	Coordinator General of the National COVID Vaccine Taskforce	2021
Terry Griffiths	Army Attaché in Washington DC	1978	1981
David McBride	Lawyer	2003	2017	Whistleblower on war crimes

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Exercise Mataika	16 August 2018	16 August 2018	Sydney New South Wales Australia University of New South Wales	2018 "pandemic" exercise planning for non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing and face masks, and contact tracing. "Dissent is quashed using various means"

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