Parts of the Australian Army’s Forces Command will move into a Sydney office tower owned by a Singapore real estate fund, which is also mortgaged to an overseas bank, a Senate committee heard last week.
Acting Deputy Secretary for Security and Estate Peter West said most of the organisation, responsible for training army personnel, are set to leave the Victoria Barracks in Paddington.
Some staff will move to Randwick Barracks and others will relocate to the CBD-based Defence Plaza Sydney on an “interim basis.”
West made the comments before the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee’s inquiry into the management of Defence estate assets on Oct. 22, which is probing the Labor government’s proposed sale of 67 Defence assets.
Forces Command will need to vacate Victoria Barracks by the end of 2027.
Committee Chair Liberal Senator Jessica Collins told the hearing the building’s land title showed a mortgage held by the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation, which is actually based in Singapore and was established in 1932.
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“So why are you planning to move our army, the headquarters of our army, into an office building that is mortgaged to a Chinese bank?” the senator asked.
West said he did not know about the mortgage and would check whether Defence was aware of it when it signed the lease.
He told the Committee that the Defence Department checks the owners of the buildings it rents, and the risks they may pose, through a “foreign ownership, control and influence” assessment.
“It is a reality that a lot of the facilities we are in have foreign ownership or beneficial foreign ownership,” he said, adding that Defence leases several thousand properties and he was not aware of who owned every one.
Under questioning from Liberal Senator Leah Blyth, West said there was an existing 10-year lease on Defence Plaza Sydney worth about $231.4 million.
It was approved by the finance minister on May 13, 2020, and began on Feb. 15, 2023.
Defence occupies what West believed to be five of the building’s 28 floors, which he said were secured by swipe cards and lift controls.
But Blyth said paying that sum to “a Singapore-owned company” while leaving Commonwealth-owned Victoria Barracks was “utterly reckless decision making with Australian taxpayer dollars.”
Security Firm Owners Named
Earlier, West confirmed that the ultimate owner of private security firm, Wilson Security, which guards the gates of many Defence bases, is the Kwok family in Hong Kong.
Collins also took aim at Deputy Secretary Celia Perkins’ absence from the hearing, with West explaining she was on long-planned staff consultations in Sydney.
“Is planned defence business more important than appearing at a Senate inquiry?” Collins asked, before querying whether Perkins was still being paid as deputy secretary while West was paid extra to act in her role.
Greens Leader Probes Whether Sale Has Public Support
Greens Senator David Shoebridge also pressed West on whether there was any public support for Labor’s defence sale, revealing his involvement in 70 consultations.
West said he could not recall any meeting that displayed call “overwhelming public support,” prompting Shoebridge to reply, “I didn’t ask about overwhelming support. I just asked about majority support.”
West said most concerns were about how the sales would be carried out, rather than about the sales themselves.
Shoebridge argued that consulting people after the decision had been made had badly damaged trust in government, while West said he believed the meetings had been “very worthwhile.”
Asked what had changed as a result, West pointed to a men’s shed being kept at Derwent Barracks in Tasmania, a decision announced by the prime minister.
When Shoebridge suggested Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should not take credit for it, West said Albanese was “well within his rights to claim any of the achievements of his government.”
