There is a never-ending conga line of politicians, intelligence, military and defence officials quick-stepping through revolving doorways onto the boards of lucrative military weapons companies.

Kim Beazley, former WA governor, ex Labor defence minister, two-time federal opposition leader, and former ambassador to the USA, was known, because of his enthusiasm for all things military, as Bomber Beazley during his Defence ministership.

Just two months after his vice-regal role ended on 30 June this year, he joined the board of defence contractorLuerssen Australia. The move is another example in the long list of Australias revolving door appointments in the military-industrial sector.

In 2018 the federal government awardedLuerssen Australia, the WA-based subsidiary of the German naval shipbuilder Lrssen, a contract to supply twelve Offshore Patrol Vessels to the navy. The $3.7 billion contract was one of 28 projectslisted as a concernin October by new defence minister Richard Marles, and was said to be running a year behind schedule.

Quality issues with the hull of the third vessel, being built by Luerssens WA project partner, the engineering firm Civmec, were revealed last month by unnamed defence sources to theAustralian Financial Review. The first two vessels were built by Luerssens South Australian partner, ASC, at Osborne near Adelaide.

In February this year, Beazley, then WA state governor, made an official visit to Luerssen at Civmecs facility in the Australian Marine Complex at Henderson, 35 kilometres south of Perth, where the remaining ten vessels are planned to be built.

The Morrison Governmentinvestedaround $1.5billion in infrastructure at both the marine complex at Henderson and at Fleet Base West at HMAS Stirling. Just across the waters of Cockburn Sound from Henderson, Stirling, Australias largest naval base, has longbeencovetedby the US military as an Indian Ocean base for its nuclear submarines and other naval ships.

Photos and a story of Beazleys visit to Henderson werepostedon the WA Government House website, including his description of the Luerssen vessel as the ship of the future.

Then, in early May this year, Governor Beazley met with a delegation of Luerssen executives at WAs Government House. Present at this meeting were two Australian executives, Jens Nielsen, Luerssen Australias chief executive, and Matt Moran, its strategy and government relations executive. More significantly, however, there was also Tim Wagner, the chief executive ofNaval Vessels Lrssen (NVL) Group, the Germanmultinationalconglomerate that owns Luerssen Australia. Government HousedownplayedWagners presence, describing him only as the chairman of Luerssen Australia.

The Government Housewebpagesays the Luerssen executives updated the Governor on the offshore patrol vessel program and that discussion then turned to the possibilities of relocating further defence industry works to Western Australia to bolster our sovereign shipbuilding capabilities. No further details are provided.

There is a wider context that raises questions about what was discussed at this meeting, which took place less than three weeks before the federal election and just four months before Beazley joined Luerssens board.In response to a requestfrom_Declassified Australia_for more details, Beazley said only that, Discussions centred on the subject on the website,the subject being the sentence quoted above.

Whatis Lrssen seeking?

The possibility of a multinational naval shipbuilder relocating potentially billions of dollars of additional works to Henderson is significant. It could become more so if reports in international media of potentialconsolidationin the German naval shipbuilding industry, including speculation about apossiblemergerbetween ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and Lrssen, prove accurate. TKMS is the large naval shipbuilding subsidiary of German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp. It was one of the three firms shortlisted for Australias ill-fated submarine contract, losing out to Frances Naval Group.

Lrssen launched itsnew NVL Group entity, whichWagner leads, in October 2021 to house its naval shipbuilding businesses, separating them from its super yacht division, a move that indicates it may be positioning itself for future industry consolidation.

In November, executives from TKMS werein Canberraseeking meetings with Australian Navy officials to discuss a potential new shipbuilding project, which the_Financial Review_said could lead to the Navy scrapping the offshore patrol vessels and replacing them with more heavily armed corvettes.

This may be significant because Lrssen and TKMS are alreadyworking in partnership(also see here) supplying the German navy with corvettes. No formal Australian corvette project yet exists, but its reported thatit isbeing considered as an option by the Albanese governments Defence Strategic Review.

Beazleys term as WA Governor ended on 30 June 2022. Luerssen Australia announced his appointment to its board on 30 August 2022.

Beazley has joined the former chief of navy, Christopher Ritchie, and former Howard government cabinet minister John Sharp on the Luerssen Australia board. Both Ritchie and Sharphave also accepted other board positions with foreign arms manufacturers.

Sharp was with European group Airbus, a significant federal defence contractor, from 20022015, prior to joining Luerssen in 2017. Ritchie was a director of Lockheed Martin Australia, local subsidiary of the worlds largest arms manufacturer, from 20132020, adding the Luerssen board in 2017.

Ritchie is also chair of theAMDA Foundation, curiously aregistered charity, that organises arms industry expos around Australia for local and international defence officials, military representatives, and arms corporations to network and do business.

The Luerssen board appointment is not Beazleys first move through the revolving door. After returning from Washington DC, where he had been ambassador from 2010 to 2016, he joined Chris Ritchie on the board of Lockheed Martin Australia.

Around this time, Beazley was appointed as co-chairman of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, a Director and Distinguished Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, and president of the Australian Institute for International Affairs

Beazley was also appointed aDistinguished Fellowat the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), for whom he wrote and spoke regularly. ASPI is designed to be the federal governments independent primary source of external advice on defence and national security matters, though there are serious questions over its independence, as shown previously byDeclassified Australia.

Beazley left Lockheeds board in April 2018 ahead of taking up the WA governorship. Since resigning as governor, hehas taken upthe role of chairperson of the Australian War Memorial, which has beensponsored byweapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Thales, BAE, and Boeing.

Defending the state

Two months after the Turnbull government signed the offshore patrol vessel contract with Luerssen Australia in late January 2018, WA Labor Premier Mark McGowanvisited Lrssens Bremen headquartersin Germany. There he discussed the program and Western Australias potential as a base for defence exports into the Asia-Pacific region.

McGowan said his government had identified defence as a key pillar for diversifying Western Australias economy, creating more jobs for Western Australians.

Within days of returning to Australia,McGowan announcedKim Beazleys appointment as governor. [He is] a great West Australian, a great advocate for our state, someone respected across the political divide, someone that can represent our state overseas someone that can represent us interstate and be an advocate for WA in a unique way. Beazley commenced in the vice-regal role on May 1.

The following year, Governor Beazley undertook hisfirst official visit, to the United Kingdom and Germany, from 25 March2 April 2019. While in Germany, his official engagements included a site visit to the Lrssen corporation. Beazley and WA Government House both declined to respond to_Declassified Australia_about the purpose of this visit.

While in London, in addition to meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, some of Governor Beazleysengagementswere specifically defence industry related. He met with Sir Roger Carr, the chair of BAE Systems, the UKs and Europes largest arms manufacturer, and sixth largest globally. He made a site visit to Airbus, a global top 15 arms multinational, which has establisheda drone launch sitein WA. He also gave a keynote address to a gathering at the Kings College Londons Menzies Australia Institute event,Contemporary thinking in Australian defence policy.

Expanding the role of governor into strategic advocacy

In May 2019,WA Today reportedthat Governor Beazley had won an additional $1.4 million in the McGowan governments 2019 Budget. Thebudgetonpage 85revealed that the extra funding covered the new Governors expanded role of advocacy and representation.

WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt told Perth radio the budget increase was because the Governor would help attract a bigger share of Australias defence industry to WA in addition to performing his job under the constitution, the report said. It quoted Wyatt:

The deal is that the Governor is uniquely placed to advocate for WA in respect of doing what weve been trying to be doing in attracting more defence investment into Western Australia

As a result of that, thats why three extra staff have been allocated to the Governor.

This is unique, theres no question about that in respect of roles the Governor has traditionally played. But, because were very fortunate to have a Governor that has quite a global background we want to attract more jobs.

Wyatt saidwhile advocacy was not the Governors formal role, the Governors expanded responsibilities were not political: Under the constitution, this is a broader remit that has been asked of him and its one that I think is not in conflict with the constitution.

The WA Government Housewebsiteentry for Role of the Governor was updated to read: The Governor advocates for the States strategic interests and capabilities, and The Governor has a key role in promoting the strategic interests and capabilities of the State.

Premier McGowan said the inclusion of advocacy by Beazley had modernised the role of governor.

Revolving doors and undue influence

The revolving door is a term used to describe the movement of individuals from public roles into related private industry roles and vice versa. Such moves are not illegal and not necessarily problematic._Declassified Australia_is not alleging any illegal activity by Kim Beazley.However, given the potential for undue influence and conflicts of interest, global integrity bodies recommend clear guidelines and a transparent process of scrutiny and approval before such appointments take place.

Unfortunately, Australias guidelines for managing revolving door appointments are weak and largely unenforced. It is also unclear whether they exist for certain positions, such as state governors.

The WAPublic Sector Commissionhas developed an integrity strategy for public authorities. It has however advised_Declassified Australia_it doesnt issue a code of conduct for the WA Governor. WA Government House declined to respond to questions from_Declassified Australia_about whether any such guidelines exist for the role of governor.

In 2018, the Grattan Institute produced a report Whos in the room? which notes that Australia is vulnerable to policy capture by vested interests and that a key risk factor is Australias lax revolving door rules [which] permit cosiness between politicians and influence-seekers.

Transparency Internationaladvises as follows for revolving door appointments:

Reasonable minimum cooling-off periods (12-18 months) should be adopted by governments to mitigate the risk of conflicts of interest. They should accompany a comprehensive, transparent and formal assessment procedure which assesses whether post-public office employment is compatible with former duties.

In response to_Declassified Australia_s questions, Kim Beazley said: Whilst Governor I visited many industries involved in Defence in Western Australia and industries in other sectors. All were aimed at encouraging investment in WA. With none of them at any stage did I discuss a role with them after my time as Governor.

Luerssen Australia declined to respond to questions, instead pointing to its August media release announcing Beazleys appointment to its board.

Original article published by Declassified Australia, republished with permission.