‘Chopper snub for Kyiv a big mistake’, says Coalition

Labor has formally rejected a request from Ukraine to use Australia’s retired fleet of Taipan helicopters in the war effort against Russia in a step labelled a ‘big mistake’ by the Coalition.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labor faces new questions over why it so speedily dismantled its fleet of retired MRH-90 Taipan helicopters after it formally declined a Ukrainian request to have the aircraft donated to assist the war effort against Russia.

Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy formally responded to Ukraine on Thursday to explain the decision of the Albanese government and revealed none of the aircraft was in flying condition.

He argued it was “not feasible” to return them to an operational state.

The Coalition accused the government of weakness for not giving Ukraine the retired fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters, with opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie warning Australia was making a “big ­mistake”.

Mr Hastie told The Australian that “the risk profile for operations in war where you are fighting for national survival is entirely different to a peacetime army”.

“We should be giving as much support as we can to the Ukrainians. If we are applying peace time standards to a war where people are fighting for their survival, we are making a big mistake,” he said.

“Our adversaries are testing every member of the free world to establish whether they are a strong horse or a weak horse. This makes us look like a weak horse.”

Director of Strategic Analysis Australia Peter Jennings also called for an investigation into the dismantling of the helicopters, accusing the Labor government of losing interest in the conflict in Eastern Europe.

And the co-chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, Stefan Romaniw, said the government’s decision-making timeline was “just not adding up”.

Mr Conroy said the government began the disposal strategy for the aircraft in September – “some months before any request (from Ukraine) was received” – and had conducted an unsuccessful global search to sell the helicopters.

“There was zero interest,” Mr Conroy said.

But Mr Romaniw said the timeline did not stack up, and questioned why Labor had not paused the dismantling process once it discovered Ukraine was interested in the helicopters.

“The minister has said the disposal strategy commenced in September 2023,” he said. “When in September did the disposal strategy start? How long did the global search for buyers take to complete? When was the decision taken to abandon the search and move to destruction? How many helicopters had been destroyed when the government became aware of Ukraine’s interest in mid-November, a month before the official request arrived on December 17?

“Further, why did the destruction of the Taipans commence as soon as the global search was concluded?”

The Taipans were permanently grounded last year after an MRH-90 helicopter plunged into the ocean off the Whitsunday Islands on July 28, killing four Australians during the Talisman Sabre joint military exercises with the US.

The investigation into the cause of the crash remains ongoing. But Mr Romaniw said it was “clear as day that, if the investigation finds there is no critical airworthiness issue, there is no way to put the aircraft back together and pass them to Ukraine”.

“Ukraine is in a fight for its existence, so Kyiv’s appreciation of risk is very different to Canberra’s. Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie has said as much,” Mr Romaniw said.

Mr Jennings also questioned how the government could have moved so quickly to dismantle the fleet of 45 helicopters.

“How it is that in the space of about 2½ months we have destroyed $1bn worth of technology leaves me speechless,” he said

The Australian revealed on Thursday that Kyiv’s official written request stated that the helicopters would “save Ukrainian lives” and prevent the wounded from “dying unnecessarily” on the frontline by providing a much needed medevac capability.