A Thales Australia employee accused of "unethical conduct" while previously with the Defence Department is no longer working for the French weapons company.
During his National Press Club address, Minister Conroy also revealed $316 million in funding for a new factory in either New South Wales or Victoria capable of producing 4,000 missiles a year in partnership with US Defence giant Lockheed Martin.Photo shows Two women in olive green uniforms and safety goggles stand next to a large crate of golden bullet shells in a factory setting.
The ABC can now reveal that last week Thales assured Defence and the Albanese government that the former departmental official was no longer conducting any paid work with the company where he had been employed as an "industrial strategy advisor". In clinching the munitions contract, Thales Australia beat a rival bid from an existing Queensland plant jointly operated by local company NIOA and Germany's Rheinmetall, which already produces a European version of 155mm shell casings.A former defence official who allegedly handed confidential information to a weapons maker is still working for the French-owned business despite being at the centre of a formal referral to the corruption watchdog.
"The forging that they do is not of the M795 artillery ammunition, they produce rounds for Germany, which is great, but those rounds aren't used in Australia on any of our platforms."