From Schwartz Media. I'm Riby Jones. This is seven am. As Trump's radical reshaping of the US pulls into focus, so too has the list of those who have gained entry to his inner circle. And that list includes not only Australia's richest woman, but also Australia's largest private arms supplier. Robert Nayer might not be a household name yet, but the weapons mogul is a close confidant to Peter Dutton, married to a katta, as well as a fishing and
hunting power to Donald Trump Junior. Today Special correspondent for the Saturday Paper, Jason Cottsugus on Robert Nya's arms empire and the impact he'll have on Australian defense policy. It's Wednesday, March twelfth. So Jason, you've recently discovered that you are now one it's removed from Donald Trump or can you tell me how that came to be?
Ruby?
It's a frightening thought, isn't it. But it came about because I was invited to a dinner recently at a favorite canber restaurant for the lobbying class, a Cantonese restaurant called Chairman and Yip. And this dinner was hosted by
a guy called Robert Nyer. Robert is from Brisbane. He went to one of the prominent Anglican grammar schools up there, known as Churchy and after his father started selling sporting firearms at the back of their gas station in rural Queensland, Robert has managed to grow that business into an international defense company and his company is now Australia's largest private
arms supplier. And during the course of this dinner, Robert and I I have started talking about his very warm and cozy relationship with Donald Trump Junior and how the two them have become quite close friends. So once I knew that I had a lot more questions to ask, I.
Bet, so what did Robert Nya say to you about Trump Junior and his friendship with him?
So it turns out that Donald Trump Junior and Robert Meyer they're close enough that they hang out in person every couple of months. And this friendship, of course goes back to early twenty twenty three when Robert Meya bought the US gun maker Barrett Firearms. Barrett Firearms are famous for making very high precision sniper rifles and these are apparently Donald Trump Junior's favorite, gun.
Okay and Jason. We know that access to any of the Trump family is currency right now, and Trump's children especially have sway over Donald Trump. So how does this relationship factor into how Robert Nya is dealing with politicians here in Australia.
Well, that's a really interesting in question because access to the Trump White House is so sought after as you can imagine. But Robert Nyer is also very well connected here in Australia. His Bobcatter's son in law. The board of his company, the Naya Group, is stacked with political insiders, including the former Defense Minister Christopher Pine, along with a very influential former Labor Parliamentary Secretary for Defense David Feeney, who's a very close friend of the current Defense Minister
Richard Miles. But I think perhaps Robert Nyer's most important political contact in Australia is the leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton. Back when Peter Dutton was Defense Minister in twenty twenty one, he opened Robert Nyer's eleven million dollar Brisbane headquarters. Less than six months later, in April twenty twenty two, Dutton awarded the Naya grouper five hundred and twenty seven million dollar contract to the Australian Defense Force.
This is involving the supply of sniper systems, assault breaching gear, and various other small arms. Peter Nutton also opened the Naya Munitions Projectile Forging Plant, which also received a twenty eight million dollar grant from the federal government. Also that month, in May twenty twenty two, which was, of course, the month of the last federal election, Robert Eyre's company sponsored
there an exclusive fundraiser for the Queensland LNP. This event gave guests who were paying five thousand dollars ahead, the opportunity to participate in a live shoot that was put on by the people from the Naya group.
Okay, so, as you say, there is this relationship between Naya and Dunton that has been quite lucrative for Naya. He's also very well connected beyond that and has built his company into a major defense contractor So, what did you learn about just how big his empire actually is.
So when Robertnya spoke at the National Press Club in December twenty twenty three, he laid out just how significant his company is for the Australian defense sector.
It has now grown to be the largest Australian owned supplier of munitions to the Australian and New Zealand defense forces in Australia. We operate half of the Australian Government's Banilla Munitions facility in Victoria, where with partners like Ray Mattal and Northrop Grumman, we're privately invested in establishing medium caliber.
With all those defense contracts has come a fair bit of business success, and perhaps that's why Robert Meyer has been able to afford a Matt Black Embreya Phenom three hundred private jet. This is a seven point six million dollar flying fortress with gold trim, leather upholstery and even personalized water bottles. And just like a lot of very well the people, he's also a fairly significant political donor.
Over the three years to June twenty twenty two, Lesaya, Robert's wife and Bob Katter's daughter, gave three hundred thousand dollars to Bob Katter's Australian Party, some of which when undeclared for almost a year. In twenty twenty three, Lisa Andya contributed another one hundred thousand dollars to the Party, while the Naya Family Trust separately donated around sixty three and a half thousand dollars to the Liberal National Party since the Labor Party came to government in twenty twenty two.
The Naya Family Trust has also donated around one hundred thousand dollars to the ALP for a weapons mogul. Like Robert Meyer, these aren't huge amounts of money, but it does underscore his deep connections to politics and the fact that this is a man with a significant amount of money in the bank, a lot of connections in Canberra, and now he's got a direct line to the American President via his son Don Junior.
Coming up after the break, how Naya's relationship with Dutton could shape Australia's foreign policy agenda.
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Jason, you've been profiling Robert Nayer, who is this weapons mogul who has close ties to many influential people, including Donald Trump Junior and Peter Dutton. But if his closest political relationship is as it seems with Peter Dutton, Dutton is obviously not the Prime Minister at this moment in time. So what has been close to the l and P What has that actually meant for Nia's defense contracts under this labor government.
So I spoke to one defense industry executive about this and he said, look, there is a view that Robert Nya leans too heavily into his relationship with the LMP and that that has cost him when it comes to the awarding of big defense contracts under the current government.
What specifically this person that I spoke to was referring to was a decision taken by the Albenze government in October last year where Naya's bid for a lucrative contract to produce the world's most in demand artillery shells went not to the Naya Group but to the French owned Talis Australia under a deal that's potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So Robert I did and win that contract for the one five to five millimeter shell, and
he was pretty annoyed about it. And he's now up against the same competitor again for a solid fuel rocket motor contract, so all eyes will be on whether he's snubbed again.
Right, So there's a sense that he has failed to get contracts because he's too close to done.
So Pat Conroy's the Minister for Defense Industry, and his office have been adamant about the fact that they have nothing to do with the actual decision making when it comes to contracts like the one that Rob and I is complaining that he missed out on. But what we do know is that when Robert and I have failed to get that project, his father in law, Bob Catter, didn't hesitate in picking up the phone and ringing the Prime Minister's office to complain and demand it that the
government have another look at it. I think they surprised the Prime Minister's office because if, of course they did what Bob Catter asked of them, they would all be referred to the National Antique Eruption Commission. So it was a pretty extraordinary request from Bob cattap But I guess he was just thinking that he was doing the right thing and advocating on behalf of his.
Son in law, and so someone like Robert Nia he must have thoughts on the best way to handle our relationship with the Trump administration. Did you ask him about that, about what he's observed firsthand about the Trumps and our position as a us LA well.
A hot topic for the Trump administration is allies pulling their weight on defense expenditure. We've heard Donald Trump complain pretty loudly that America's European allies are not spending enough when it comes to defense, and he's calling on them to increase their defense spending from two percent of GDP to around five percent of GDP, and countries like the
United Kingdom have already responded to that. The week before last, the British Prime min to Keirstarmer announced that the UK plan to increase its defense spending to three percent of GDP before the next election. Robneyer is certainly of the view that Australia needs to follow suit.
Right, So, Jason, what we have is a defense contractor calling for an increase in defense spending, which is obviously not that surprising. But if he is someone with influence in the Trump administration, how significant do you think his perspective is when it comes to how Peter Dutton thinks about defense.
Oh, I think it's quite significant. Peter Dutton clearly trusts Robneyer. I think if Peter Dutton was to become Prime Minister, he would definitely try to make use of Robneyer's connections to the Trump administration. And I think Robneyer himself is also someone who hasn't hidden the fact that he thinks Peter Dutton would be a better Prime minister for Australia when it comes to defense. It's pretty clear that these
two have a pretty strong connection. And if Peter Dutton does win the election whenever it's called, I think we're going to see Rob now become a lot more influential when it comes to Australian defense policy making.
So, Jason, if Peter Dutton wanted to lean in into his connections with Trump, he, I mean he very much could. He has this close relationship with Robert Naya, who's friends with the Trump's. Done's also close to Gina Reinhart, who has her own relationship with the Trump family, and Dutton has talked about his ability to get things done with
this administration. But do you think that there is a risk here that if he does that, because Australians I think are turned off by Trump, that anything that Dutton does that aligns with him could backfire.
I think Peter Dutton has to be very careful about how closely he aligns himself with Donald Trump. After Donald Trump won the election in November, Peter Dutton came out pretty quickly to congratulate Donald Trump, and in the first weeks following that election victory, Peter Dutton was also happy to align himself with a lot of the things that Donald Trump said he would do when he became president.
The risk though, for Peter Dutton is that since Donald Trump was sworn in, he has disrupted the US government to such an extent that it's now starting to really concern voters here in Australia, and that's just getting worse and worse each week. From what I'm hearing, the Labor Party is of the view that Donald Trump is hurting
Peter Dutton. It's coming up in their polling. They're saying that voters believe that Peter Dutton's election slogan Let's get Australia back on track, is a little bit similar to the make America Great against slogan that has been so successful for Donald Trump, and that it is backfiring a bit.
Peter Dutton, Well, Jason, thank you so much for your time.
Ruby great to talk with you as always.
Also in the news today, the Australian Federal Police have confirmed that the caravan found in January filled with explosives and antisemitic material was all part of a fabricated terrorist plot. The AFP found that the caravan was planted by criminals from Australia and overseas, who then intentionally informed the police of the caravan's location in order to cause fear for personal benefit. At the time, New South Wales Premier Chris
Mins described the incident as terrorism. Yesterday, he defended his response, saying it would have been negligent not to take this incredibly seriously. And former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has doubled down on his criticism of President Trump, saying Australia should not muzzle ourselves for fear of offending mister Trump.
The US president took to his Truth social platform to call Turnbull chaotic and abusive, believed to be in response to Turnbull's comments in a Bloomberg interview over the weekend where he criticized Trump's leadership style. The comments come at a crucial time for Australia US relations with tariffs against Australian's steel and aluminum currently due to comments on Thursday, I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. See tomorrow.