Mr Pyne and the boss of DCNS, Herve Guillou, visit the shipyards in Cherbourg.
The Malcolm Turnbull, Christopher Pyne and Marise Payne AUD 50 billion deal with DCNS of France smells for many , many reason, not least given DCNS's history of corruption.
This writer has previously noted that it is in the interest of the United States to have the DCNS deal investigated, and to have Australia lease the US's Virginia class submarines, immediately:
Dump compromised DCNS Barracudas, lease US Virginias: A simple commercial arrangement that will keep Trump engaged in the defence of this
Trump' calling Turnbull's Nauru deal "dumb" comes after Turnbull thought he could corner Trump by having that deal concluded with Obama,. It also comes after Turnbull declared that he ,and especially he, could replace the US with China in the TPPA.
Turnbull can now expect, if not already, every deal he has entered into to come under extreme vetting.
END
Reference
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Payne's admission requires investigation of submarine contracts: Is l'affaire Adelaide a repeat of DCNS's l'affaire Karachi?
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Australian Defence Minsiter Marise Payne protested on ABC last night that her boyfriend's "attempt" at contacting DCNS in Paris just a week before she announced DCNS as winner of the Competitive Evaluation Process for AUD 50 billion contract for the construction of 12 submarines, was nothing more than what any trade minister would do as part of the Process. In Payne's words ::
MARISE PAYNE: No. I understand that that is part of a series of meetings that any Trade Minister from Australia from any state in the Commonwealth, frankly, would endeavour to have with participants in the CEP (Competitive Evaluation Process) process.
As explained in the previous post :
The CEP was basically a fashion parade, so it is hard to see why there was any need for anyone to seek a meeting with any bidder
unless it was to provide assistance with the bidding process.
Payne has , in effect ,admitted that there has been at least an attempt to do so by her boyfriend, Stuart Ayres. This would not of course be the first time that DCNS has managed to combine elections, election funding ,and a contract for submarines.
l'affaire Karachi is yet to be resolved.
END
Christopher Pyne attacks Xenophon staffer over submarine document leaks
Australian Defence and Industry minister Christopher Pyne during a media conference at a submarine facility in France.
Defence Industry minister Christopher Pyne has refused to accept a staffer of Senator Nick Xenophon acted as a whistleblower when he released information that the French submarine company DCNS had suffered a major security breach of its Indian submarine build.
A furious Mr Pyne accused Senator Xenophon of politicising an act of international industrial sabotage and said the first actions of the Senator and his staffer Rex Patrick should have been to return the information to the company.
In what could be seen as a diplomatic row, DCNS, which won the $50 billion tender to design and build the 12 Future Submarines, did not know about the sabotage until August, when it was reported by The Australian.
The sabotage involved over 22,000 sensitive documents relating to planned combat and performance capabilities of the Indian submarines.
DCNS chief executive Herve Guillou said additional security was not part of the Australian tender because at the time “we did not know about it, we found out when it was published in the newspaper’’.
But in a feisty press conference inside the DCNS submarine factory in Cherbourg, Mr Pyne then shut down questions to Mr Guillou.
“Mr Herve (Guillou) is not here to be a punching bag for the Australian press,’’ he said. “’I hope you haven’t flown all the way to Cherbourg to have a fight.’’
Mr Pyne and the boss of DCNS, Herve Guillou, visit the shipyards in Cherbourg.
Senator George Brandis last week signed a security document with the French relating to security surrounding the Australian submarines.
Mr Pyne said there were different versions about whether Mr Patrick had handed the leaked details about the Indian submarines to Australian Defence officials three years ago, as has been reported.
“There are different stories about that,’’ he said. “If senator Xenophon and his staffer had wanted to assist as they claim they wanted to assist, they would have been better to hand DCNS’s property back to DCNS and if it came to them apparently by mistake ... they would have given DCNS property back to DCNS and they would have informed the government, they would have informed DCNS and potentially the Indian government so that we could take whatever measures were necessary to review the security arrangements.
“So I don’t buy up to the story this was an act of whistleblowing because whistleblowing uncovers misdeeds by government or industrial corporations, there was no misdeed.
“DCNS had some of their secrets taken by one of their employees and Senator Xenophon and Mr Patrick decided to publicise it.’’
Mr Pyne did not answer a question about being satisfied with the procedures within the Australian Defence Force to uncover any similar breaches of security similar to what happened to the Indian submarines.
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