Australia toughens ban on training 'certain foreign militaries' after pilot case

Former defence personnel will now face a 20-year prison sentence if they teach “certain foreign militaries,” and the ban will be expanded to include any Australians who provide military training to nations deemed to pose a threat to national security. The crackdown has been brought on by a number of incidents involving former military pilots who now reside in Australia and who worked for a South African flight school instructing Chinese pilots—pilots who, according to the United States, are Chinese military pilots. The “Five Eyes” intelligence allies of Australia—Britain, the United States, New Zealand, and Canada—will not be subject to the new rule, according to officials. Exemptions will also be granted if the training is authorised by the defence minister, relates to humanitarian assistance, or is necessary for United Nations obligations. Giving military instruction or tactics to a foreign military or government body—including hybrid civilian and military groups and state-owned businesses—without the defence minister’s consent will result in fines of up to 20 years in prison. The bill, according to Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles, was partially modelled after American law and will strengthen existing criminal laws that forbid former Australian defence personnel from providing military training to a foreign government. Marles introduced the amendment to Australia’s parliament on Thursday. The new law goes a step further by outlawing the delivery of such training without the minister’s permission to any Australian citizen or permanent resident. The intention was to “prevent individuals with knowledge of sensitive defence information from training or working for certain foreign militaries or governments where that activity would put Australia’s national security at risk”, he said. An ex-pilot of the US Marine Corps who had just returned from working in China was detained in Australia last year and is now being extradited to the US on suspicion of instructing Chinese military pilots at a South African flying school. Daniel Duggan, an Australian citizen, the pilot, is still in detention and claims he did nothing wrong. In June, the Test Flying Academy of South Africa was added to a U.S. trade blacklist for “training Chinese military pilots using Western and NATO sources” on the basis of national security. The Chinese state-owned aviation and defence firm AVIC, whose flight training division collaborated with TFASA, is also listed on the blacklist. Australian Federal Police conducted a raid on Keith Hartley, the chief operational officer of TFASA, in November. A judge was informed that Hartley, a former British military pilot, was accused of planning the flying school’s instruction of Chinese military pilots. Hartley hasn’t been charged and says he did nothing illegal. Working for businesses where a foreign government owns 50% or more of the stock or where the directors are expected to behave in accordance with the wishes of the foreign government is also prohibited under the new rule. (With agency inputs)