Mike McCormick

As noted in my submission to the AUKUS Public Inquiry: Having read through the two Treaty documents I would make the following observations: 1. in relation to intellectual property, Article XIB provides that Australia must secure ownership of any invention employing information provided by the UK or US and must transfer and assign to either the US or the UK worldwide rights to the invention, without payment, retaining only a perpetual worldwide licence to use or grant to an approved customer a sub licence. What that means is that if Australian scientists or engineers develop any advances under AUKUS in any of the relevant technologies, we have to sign that over for free. We’re still able to use those advances but can’t sell it to third parties as we see fit. Interestingly, Article XI D requires Australia to indemnify the US and the UK for any liability if they have infringed other peoples patents by supplying the information or material to us, which is the reverse of the indemnity usually being given by the infringer. 2. Article VI D precludes Australia from enriching uranium or producing nuclear fuel and requires it to use only fuel transferred under the Nuclear Propulsion Agreement. This means we are locked into the availability and price set by the US or UK notwithstanding us having domestic supplies of uranium which we sell to both nations. So we can build nuclear submarines here but can’t use our own fuel. Once again, we export the raw material and buy it back as a value-added finished good. A further question is why this provision is needed at all when the Virginia Class submarines supposedly never need to be refuelled over their nominal 33 year lifespan. 3. The indemnity in Article IV E against any liability “arising out of (or) related to or resulting from” nuclear risks is broad in scope and applies to virtually any aspect of the project. It means that if any nuclear risk materialises, Australia bears the entire cost of rectification and compensation, even though it may not have contributed to the damage or injury, and the US or the UK are entitled to indemnity from Australia even if they themselves caused or contributed to the damage or injury and we did not. 4. If Australia walks away from the deal, then under the termination Article XIII D, the US and UK can require everything supplied to be returned or destroyed. There’s no provision in the Treaty for Australia to be repaid even if the UK and US arbitrarily terminate the Agreement and Australia is not in breach. #auspol #AUKUSPublicInquiry #AUKUS #AUKUSRoyalCommission #transparency #accountability