Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

Committee activities (inquiries and reports)

Inquiry into Australia's Defence Relations with the United States

This inquiry lapsed when all Committees of the House of Representatives and joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives for the 40th Parliament ceased to exist upon dissolution of the House of Representatives at 4:59pm, Tuesday 31 August 2004. On Thursday 2 December 2004, the Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade resolved to re-refer the inquiry. The Defence sub-committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade conducted an inquiry into Australia's defence relations with the US.

Since World War Two, Australia and the United States (US) have developed strong defence relations. In particular, the last decade has seen a new level of defence relations encompassing Australian involvement in the first Gulf War, the invoking of the ANZUS Treaty, and Australian involvement in US led coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Defence Update 2003 commented that Australias alliance with the US remains a national asset and the United States current political, economic, and military dominance adds further weight to the alliance relationship.

Terms of reference

Submissions

Public hearings

Media releases

Report

The Committee has also produced an issues paper that is available below in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Issues paper (PDF 840KB)

To view or print the issues paper in PDF, you will need Adobe Acrobat® PDF Reader, which can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe.®