Australian War Memorial accepted more than $830,000 from weapons manufacturers in three years

The Australian War Memorial accepted more than $830,000 in sponsorship and donations from arms manufacturers over the last three years, including a $28,000 donation for a Remembrance Day dinner last year.

The criticism has done little to dissuade the memorial from continuing to accept such funding.

Figures released to the Senate show it has taken $803,785.98 in sponsorship funding from Boeing, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Thales since 2020-21, usually to fund special exhibitions.

Boeing was by far the biggest funder of the memorial, providing $350,149 for three exhibitions.

Wareham said she welcomed the recent appointment of Kim Beazley as AWM council chair, given his views on the need to commemorate the frontier wars. But she did not expect a similar change on the issue of arms manufacturing sponsorship, given Beazley is still on the board of defence contractor Luerssen Australia and was formerly on the board of Lockheed Martin.

Nelson took a role with the arms manufacturer Thales during his directorship and a job with Boeing after his departure.