Hon Phil Twiss asks about the AUKUS Small and Medium Enterprise Readiness Fund, including application numbers, funding amounts, and requested activities. The Minister provides a detailed response outlining the fund's scope and usage.

AnsweredQoN 149Legislative Council
Asked
12 March 2026
Portfolio
Defence Industries

QuestionView source ↗

Defence industry—AUKUS Small and Medium Enterprise Readiness
Fund
149. Hon Phil Twiss to
the minister representing the Minister for Defence
Industries:
I refer to the AUKUS
Small and Medium Enterprise Readiness Fund announced last year.
(1) How many applications for the fund
were received?
(2) What was the highest amount of
funding requested?
(3) What activities was funding requested
for and can the minister please list them?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the member
for some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided by the Minister
for Defence Industries.
The Department of
the Premier and Cabinet advises the following.
(1) There were 36.
(2) It was $100,000.
(3) In accordance with the publicly
available guidelines, all activities were required to demonstrate specific
relevance to AUKUS pillars 1 and 2. Funding was requested for development
and modification of in-house capabilities; costs associated with the
recruitment and onboarding of new skilled or specialist staff, except for salary
and/or wage expenses; acquisition of new plant and equipment; enhancement of
physical and digital security, including defence cybersecurity as per US and UK
requirements; and specialist advice regarding US and/or UK defence export controls
and compliance for products and/or services.

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