Australian Maritime Defence Council

Navies have had a long relationship with their respective maritime industries and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is no exception. Naval capability cannot be built, maintained and supported without a strong industrial sector. This is well known, but there are other aspects to the RAN relationship with the maritime industry that are less well known, and this Semaphore examines the relationship with the shipping and port associations through what is now called the Australian Maritime Defence Council (AMDC). While its discussions are not classified, they are occasionally sensitive, so what follows focuses on administrative issues before providing a general outline of topics considered by the Council.