I wonder if this support by government for the arms industry is because there is a movement away from unethical investments? The more successful that ethical fund managers become, the more difficult it will be for the arms industry, tobacco industry and big oil to raise finance in the future.
Perhaps the government is getting in early to ensure the industries they like, are not squeezed for credit?
A clue to how they are thinking, is that they are considering making finance from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund available for the Adani coal mine rail link.
In coal's heyday, private lenders would have been lining up for this type of investment.
"The financial aspects of the Turnbull government’s plan to turn Australia into an arms exporting powerhouse are baffling, a leading defence expert says, but the decision to promote defence products overseas is welcome.
Andrew Davies, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s director of defence strategy, said the Coalition’s plan to use a $3.8bn fund to underwrite an expansion of arms exports made little economic sense because manufacturers had no trouble securing funding from private sources.
“That baffles me,” Davies told Guardian Australia. “I’ve been around this business a long time and no one’s ever said to me, ‘If only we could get more government funding, we could export more.’
The government plans to create the $3.8bn defence export facility to provide finance to local manufacturers to help them sell more of their defence equipment overseas. It is part of the government’s plan for Australia to become one of the world’s top 10 arms exporters."
