“So the 50 plus contractors who contribute parts to the F-35 fighter jets that are currently being used to drop bombs on the Palestinian people in Gaza, none of their exports you count as weapons?” Shoebridge asked in a senate hearing on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera.
“Senator, there’s a lot in your question, I don’t know if the F-35s are being used in the conflict in Gaza,” responded Hugh Jeffrey, the Deputy Secretary of Defence Strategy, Policy, and Industry Group in the Australian defence department.
Earlier this week, a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands government to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Gaza.
But in Australia, Shoebridge and other advocates have been focused on trying to find out more about Australian weapons exports due to a relative lack of publicly available information in comparison to other countries, including the United States.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,473 Palestinians and wounded 68,146 others since October 7.