Did AWM make a false representation?

Documents obtained by MAPW’s Reclaim Remembrance campaign under the FOI Act have been tabled in Parliament during Senate Estimates hearings.

Documents obtained by MAPW’s Reclaim Remembrance campaign under the FOI Act have been tabled in Parliament during Senate Estimates hearings. 

In February 2018, November 2019, and April 2021, the AWM signed Lockheed Martin Certificates of Compliance attesting that the AWM was not an “agency, organisation, association, or instrumentality of any government” and not “otherwise owned, in whole or in part, or controlled by any government.”

Greens Senator David Shoebridge questioned AWM Director Matt Anderson on the misreprentation of the Memorial’s status, and the compliance standards of the Memorial:

“The purpose of having this limitation on behalf of Lockheed Martin is so that Lockheed Martin is not seen to be making financial contributions to governments, or any agency or association associated with a government, that it’s also selling weapons to. It’s an integrity measure. Do you understand that?”

Mr Anderson defended undermining of the integrity measure. 

Read the full transcript of the exchange in the Hansard record and read David Stephen’s analysis of the issue in Pearls and Irritations. 

"It was wrong to execute this document. It was executed knowing full well that the War Memorial was an agency, organisation, association or instrumentality of the Australian government, wasn't it?"

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