On 2 April theDefence Trade Controls Act(DTCA) comes
into force. This new law controlsresearch into technologies
that, in theory at least, could have military applications.
The Department of Defence’s 353-page list of such “dual-
use” technologies (tinyurl.com/jcsm9ro) lays claim to just about
everyield ofresearch,including infectious diseases, biotech-
nology, high-performance computers, robotics andartiicial
intelligence, encryption, electronics, manufacturing, and soft-
ware for these applications.
While there is an exemption for oralcommunications and
formal publication of dual-use research, the Act prohibits
communication by“email, fax, telephone, videoconferencing,
providing access to electroniciles, orpresentations that contain
[Defence and StrategicGoods] technology. The provisions
applyequally to theindustry, university and research sectors”
(tinyurl.com/z9yhngp).
As a result, Australian researchers who send an email about
their work to an international colleague without a permit from
Defence risk 10 years imprisonment, a $425,000 ine and forfei-
ture of their research. In violation of international human rights
law, those charged are presumed guilty and must prove their
innocence.
The DTCA controls many research topics with no sensible
connection to military technology. For example, it restricts research
into toxins produced by a pest mould that grows on rice and is the
third leading cause of liver cancer worldwide.
It also restricts research into “golden staph”, which every year
kills more than 10,000 patients in US hospitals alone. And it
restricts research into Ebola and Dengue fever, which kill more than
60,000 people per year.
Medical researchers agree with restricting weaponisation
research, but not research into the diseases themselves.
When outbreaks occur, and patients only have days or hours
to live, medical researchers must move quickly. However, Australian
medical researchers are now forbidden from sharing data or
discussing unpublished treatments with overseas doctors until
Defence grants a permit, which can take weeks.
Nor can Australian doctors share data about their own patients
to overseas researchers or attend outbreak seminars until Defence
grants them a permit. Medical researchers are warning that no
one overseas will want to deal with Australians, and any Australian
researcher who carelessly cc’s a foreign colleague on an e-mail faces
10 years jail. It’s a good reason to choose another research area, or
relocate overseas.
It’s easy to violate the DTCA. Take the radar equation from
nearly any physics textbook. Add a term, perhaps for weather or
ground bounce, in a way that probably hasn’t been done before.
Now put that in a MATLABile and e-mailsomeone overseas.
You’ve just broken the law, and can be locked up for10 years.
Yet this is legal in the US, UK, and even Russia and China. In
fact, although the DTCA is supposedly for compliance with the
Wassenaar Arrangement onExportControls for Conventional
Arms andDual-UseGoods and Technologies, theUS and UK
versions protect fundamental research, public education, semi-
nars and overseas visits. Australia’s does not.While commonsense could prevail in the application of the
DTCA, it’s worth noting that Defence has a conlict of interest.
It has business partners and a research arm, the Defence Science
and Technology Group (formerly DSTO), and is under pressure
to earn commercial income. For example, in 2013 Defence signed
a pact with CSIRO to form a “world-leading collaborative research
powerhouse for dual-use technologies,” and this is now also
controlled by the DTCA.
Defence inspectors accompanied by defence scientists can now
demand entry to research premises for an “audit”, and make copies
of intellectual property. Defence lawyers say the Department has
no obligation to respect commercial conidentiality.
This is unworkable for business, which needs to keep trade
secrets secret. Defence has already been accused of academic plagia-
rism by a large defence company, and in 2013 Crikeyreported
that Defence had stolen IP from companies (tinyurl.com/prl8tt9).
This includes my own.
In this environment, large companies will transfer their propri-
etary research offshore, and small ones will pack up and leave. My
technology company already has.
Hypocritically, federal government employees are exempt from
the DTCA. They can do what private sector or university
researchers would go to jail for.
The DTCA will have a devastating effect on Australian science
and technology. It will kill the nation’s innovation culture, prevent
international collaboration, make IP protection impossible, and
drive away investment and entrepreneurs.
It will kill Malcolm Turnbull’s “Innovation Agenda” before it
even leaves the gate.
Brendan Jones has dissolved his Australian technology business and now works in a startup
company overseas.APRIL 2016|| 39Defence Takes Control over Australian Research
A new law comes into force this month that puts scientists at risk of imprisonment and
businesses at risk of losing their intellectual property.conSCIENCEAustralian researchers who send an email
about their work to an international
colleague without a permit from Defence
risk 10 years imprisonment...