AUKUS
Our series on AUKUS
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Our case against AUKUS is more relevant than ever
Next Monday, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Continue reading »
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AUKUS confirms that we are mendicant clients of the US
A recalcitrant US government could turn-off Australia’s ability to defend itself within days. Continue reading »
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The US sees China through the dark mirror of its own unbridled aggression
As China grows and prospers many in the US want us to believe that China will follow the same path that the US itself pursued – global military aggression, the overthrow of numerous governments around the world and persecution of minorities at home. (A repost from February 2023.) Continue reading »
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Best of 2024: “I told you so”: No Aussie subs in 2030s, total reliance on the Yanks
The sweetest words in the English language: I told you so. Continue reading »
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Best of 2024: The military control of Australia
The Albanese government with their policy is likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States, writes former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating. Continue reading »
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Fear-mongering claims masquerading as facts protect AUKUS from parliament’s scrutiny
The battle is on to see which side of politics can boast of siphoning the most profits to the weapons industry – at the expense of health, education, climate and environmental action, and everything else we need – and of bowing more obsequiously before the US and its war machine. Continue reading »
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Theranos, Nokia and Dennis Richardson’s AUKUS review
Dennis Richardson has been asked by Defence Minister Richard Marles to review “governance” at the Australian Submarine Agency tasked with building AUKUS submarines because a Public Service staff census has revealed very significant problems within the Agency with staff morale and internal communications. But, is he up to the task? Continue reading »
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AUKUS is an intergenerational disaster. It will cause long term detriment to Australia’s security
Australia is a part of a hostile military alliance directed at China. “Interoperability” or “interchangeability” means we’re now a US pawn, tied to its coattails. So that’s the job of every Australian: push for more information, keep talking about why AUKUS is an utter disaster and why it commits us to a costly and dangerous Continue reading »
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The AUKUS delusion just got worse
Much has been written in these pages about the AUKUS delusion: Of how it was haphazardly and secretly put together by Scott Morrison to wedge the then Labor Opposition, about the elasticity of its costings, the improbability of Australia ever acquiring any of the proposed submarines, the enormous cost of the project, the effectiveness of Continue reading »
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If you want peace, don’t prepare for war
In a series of baby but not blindfolded steps, our Government is making Australia ready for war. The latest of these appeared in the small print of a memorandum on 27 November. Continue reading »
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AUKUS harming Chinese and Muslim Australians
In electorates with high numbers of Chinese and Muslim voters, it is time for a reckoning with Labor’s AUKUS policy. Continue reading »
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Subs and secrets: Will Australia choose AUKUS or sovereignty?
Australians have become locked in to US military planning, entrenching our status as a US staging post. In this more dangerous world is a country’s sovereignty now a myth? Continue reading »
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Another nail in the coffin for Australia’s phantom defence needs
The US submarine base was always going to come first, not for the sake of supplying useless boats for Australia’s phantom defence needs, but for keeping an ever watchful US imperium stocked. Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
Claims Israel is aiding ISIS-linked terrorists, the UN security council fails to gain the votes to call for a ceasefire, Palestine asks in there is one rule for Israel. Jeffrey Sachs sets history straight on Europe and the Ukraine war and Senator Lidia Thorpe sets the record straight on the two-party system. Senator Hanson-Young calls Continue reading »
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AUKUS, the China threat and Chinese-Australian communities
The recent election of Donald Trump to the US presidency has cast further doubt on the feasibility of the AUKUS trilateral security partnership, particularly Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarines under Pillar I. Yet the AUKUS trilateral security partnership has become a fait accompli without the Australian public having expressed much in the way of opposition, or even a Continue reading »
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Is AUKUS safe under Trump?
Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr joins Steve Cannane to discuss: is the country’s key strategic military agreement with the US under threat from a Trump presidency? Continue reading »
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A five-minute scroll
British surgeon Nizam Mamode describes how Israel’s quadcopters target children and Norwegian physician, Dr. Mads Gilbert speaks out on 400 days of genocide. Israel, meanwhile, has passed laws allowing children under under the age of 14 to be jailed. Sarah Schwartz of the Jewish Council of Australia speaks out on the false reporting of weekend Continue reading »
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Does Australia really want to be the “tip of the spear”, projecting Western power?
AUKUS, increasingly seen as a dud deal, though an expensive one, with a $368 billion price tag, stands as the clearest example of the cognitive dissonance besetting the Australian body politic. Continue reading »
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Trump victory makes AUKUS a further danger to Australia
Grassroots anti-AUKUS campaign, Labor Against War, has called on the federal Labor government to withdraw Australia from the AUKUS military pact. Continue reading »
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The doomed conceit of a political AUKUS
Three years on, there is still no compelling argument, strategic or otherwise, for Australia’s acquiring eight Virginia-class nuclear-propelled submarines (SSNs). Nor is there any compelling calculation of the large lick of funding – $368bn and more – that the program will soak up. Only Defence seems able to command such stupendous outlays when childcare, aged Continue reading »
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Australia neither moral nor powerful
Australia is no longer a middle, nor moral, power although its political leaders think Australia is both. When did Australia lose its morality, and along with that loss, its status as a respected middle power? Continue reading »
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Who really owns the South China Sea?
We are told the AUKUS ‘security partnership’ requires Australia additionally to acquire a fleet of nuclear -powered submarines (SSNs) to accompany AUKUSThey will operate mainly in the South China Sea, allegedly to deter China’s expansionist goals Continue reading »
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“Reveal government secrets on AUKUS and Gaza war”
Grassroots anti-AUKUS campaign, Labor Against War, has called on the federal Labor government to reveal the secret political undertakings it has said it has made to the US government as a condition for the continued pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines. Continue reading »
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Australia’s evolving nuclear posture: avoiding a fait accompli (Part 2 of 2)
The significance of US strategic bomber deployments:Defence Minister Richard Marles played down revelations in late 2022 that up to six US B-52 strategic bombers are to be forward-deployed to Tindal Air Force Base, telling reporters at the time that ‘everyone needs to take a deep breath here.’ Marles implied that there was nothing new about Continue reading »
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Australia’s evolving nuclear posture: avoiding a fait accompli (Part 1 of 2)
A monumental transformation: There has been a great deal of public criticism of Australia’s decision to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) via the AUKUS security partnership. The criticism has been both broad and deep, spanning political and industrial challenges, budgetary consequences, safety and environmental concerns, strategic risks, and the erosion of national sovereignty. Continue reading »
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The unsustainable costs of war
In a world of simultaneous military and environmental crises our capacity to finance both has become unsustainable. Globally, military expenditure over the past decade has been rising at double that of GDP reaching an all-time high of $2.4 trillion in 2023. Continue reading »
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The wrong trousers: focusing on the real AUKUS issue
The AUKUS agreement is controversial. It covers advanced military technologies whose future is contested by experts. There is also a vigorous discussion over whether the agreement has compromised Australia’s autonomy on strategic policy making and implementation. Yet this latter debate completely misses why AUKUS is at risk of failure. Continue reading »
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How civilisation could end – an all-too-possible nuclear scenario
On 12 September, Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation, not excluding nuclear, against NATO countries if Washington allows Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia with US missiles. President Joe Biden backed off – for the moment. But the doomsday clock of the Atomic Scientists now stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been Continue reading »
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Suppose Australia was more independent and less dumb
Look at how favourably situated Australia is in the world. As the foundations were put in place for the Asian Century, most profoundly by China, Australia was in the right place at the right time and it benefitted inordinately. Looking forward, as the rise of China continues and a range of Asian countries, including India, Continue reading »
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US makes WA vital for fighting its wars and a target for its enemies
Successive Australian governments have allowed the United States to carry out a program of militarisation in Western Australia which has made it a vital U.S war-fighting base and thus an inevitable target for retaliatory strikes should hostilities commence, for example between the U.S and China. Continue reading »
