Defence businesses say an international military conference held in Adelaide this week was "an embarrassment" after no officials turned up as advertised.
However, furious defence industry figures claim organisers of the MAST 24 conference greatly exaggerated participant numbers, and falsely claimed officials such as Australia's Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond would be appearing. The event was billed as a "leading international maritime, air and space technologies defence event" and a 17-year first for the southern hemisphere."It's an utter embarrassment and total shitshow – not even the South Australian Defence Minister or Defence SA boss turned up, it reminded me of theFyre Festival was synonymous with disaster when the event spectacularly fell apart in 2017, but the event's co-founder is out of jail and ready to go again.
Industry figures claim at least two large Australian defence companies wrote to organisers ahead of the event to demand they be removed from material that falsely portrayed they were official participants in the conference. "I have been advised that one exhibitor unfortunately was unable to complete their installation prior to event start and we are working to rectify this with them."