Productivity tsar Danielle Wood ducks for cover on Israel promotion
Is the Productivity Commission in breach of international law by its support for Israel lobby Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce?
Chair of Australia’s Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, has declined to respond to questions about her agency’s support for Israel lobby group Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC).
According to lawyers contacted by MWM, Ms Wood and the PC may be in breach of the Commission’s own policy guidelines which state “In the performance of its functions, the Commission must have regard to the need … for Australia to meeting its international obligations and commitments”.
Ms Wood, a respected Australian economist, is due to present before the AICC on February 13, 2025.
As reported by MWM last month, the AICC, has been funded by companies such as Elbit Systems whose weapons have been used in human rights abuses in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
Further, the investigation found that AICC associate IACC had been involved in funding illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Legal opinion obtained by MWM questioned whether Mr Wood’s association with the AICC would “be publicly seen as supporting and or tacitly endorsing or otherwise ignoring the many egregious alleged violations of international law and Australia’s international legal obligations as well as the PC’s own legislative/statutory policy guidelines (namely subsection 8(1)(j) of the PC Act), and thus showing public support for, promoting and thereby enriching (via non-member ticket sales/ promoting membership purchases, and general notoriety as a powerful business lobby) for the AICC”.
Money raised by the AICC because of the Wood presentation “may well end up funding violations of international law whether directly or indirectly”.
The opinion cites Israeli companies involved in the “perpetration of war crimes, atrocities and what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has declared to be a “plausible” genocide in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories such as Elbit Systems.
https://michaelwest.com.au/productivity-commission-chair-danielle-wood-ducks-israel-lobby-questions/