Australia plans to boost AUKUS tech-sharing, restrict ‘foreign’ access

A new Australian law will toughen restrictions on how industries and universities share defence technology with foreigners, while exempting AUKUS partners Britain and the United States from such controls, a draft of the measure shows.
The law is meant to replicate U.S. export controls to defence technology, seen as a key step to beginning the AUKUS plan to build a new class of nuclear-powered submarine in Australia and Britain.
Scrutiny by the U.S. State Department of Australia’s ability to protect defence secrets has partly contributed to delays by the U.S. Congress in passing legislation to allow the sale of Virginia-class submarines to Australia and enable greater sharing of defence technology for AUKUS.
The proposed law creates three criminal offences, further restricts sharing of defence technology to foreign persons inside and outside Australia, while allowing licence-free sharing among the AUKUS partners.