AUKUS
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AUKUS and the Nuclear Agenda: the challenge for the labour movement
AUKUS is fundamentally part of a global program to reassert US dominance as its power fades. That is what AUKUS is about; it’s about tying Australia to that slowly sinking ship, the United States Empire. The Labor Government has been captured by this militaristic ideology, and it is our job to shake them out of Continue reading »
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AUKUS: An Australian tragedy
Euripides drama Medea about unpunished crimes infecting the Greek city-state contains some sobering lessons for Australia’s future in AUKUS. Continue reading »
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Defence policy an enigma
The logistics of crossing the sea to invade Australia are insurmountable. In terms of cost/benefit analysis, invading Australia is simply not worth the trouble. Continue reading »
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Serious concerns about the AUKUS submarine deal are not going away
Despite continuing optimism from Prime Minister Albanese and Defence Minister Marles and the defence commentariat about the AUKUS submarine deal it continues to attract significant uncertainty and doubt in the wider community. This centres around issues such as sovereignty , our industrial capability to manage the construction and longer term maintenance and the massive donation Continue reading »
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Defence: who are we, what do we stand for?
Allan Behm, head of international and security at the Australia Institute, discusses foreign affairs, defence, AUKUS and security issues facing Australia. Behm poses the question: do we know who we are and what we stand for in attempting to secure our national interest? Continue reading »
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Ghost shark
The Ghost Shark, a new underwater drone being developed for the Australian Navy, could kill off the deeply flawed plan to acquire eight nuclear submarines for a projected cost as much as $360 billion. Continue reading »
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We “share values” with people committing genocide
Western leaders like to talk about values, shared values, common values. They talk about this a lot. America itself is obsessed with two things: conflict resolution through violence and moral preening. Nowhere is this contradiction more glaringly on display than in the genocide being committed in Gaza. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says Continue reading »
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Labor Budget 2024-25: $10b to support nuclear shipyards of ageing US/UK empires
Grassroots anti-AUKUS campaign, Labor Against War, has called on the Federal Labor Government to come clean about just how much it is pouring into US and UK coffers to rebuild their ageing nuclear shipyards, both of which build nuclear-armed submarines. Continue reading »
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Is New Zealand slurping the AUKUS Kool-Aid?
Drinking the Kool-Aid is not only believing a foolish and dangerous idea but acting on it leads to unnecessary self-destruction. It refers to the 900 American cult members who drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid at Jonestown in Guyana in 1978 in an act of “revolutionary suicide”. Critics of AUKUS on both sides of the Tasman think our Continue reading »
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Australia’s stunted mainstream defence and security imagination
With Australian defence writers now arguing for society to be reimagined as an ‘input to defence capability’, we are witnessing further incursions in the Democracy – Defence Nexus. Continue reading »
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The end of US primacy: facing Australia’s existential security question
“Nothing Australia does – with or without AUKUS – will make any difference to the collective capacity to either deter or defeat China in the next decade, which is the time frame that counts. That means the only prudent choice for Australia’s military strategy is to prepare to defend ourselves from major powers such as Continue reading »
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Albo’s continual failures
Thanks to Anthony Albanese’s prolonged refusal to change the Morrison government’s damaging policies that he has endorsed, Labor is struggling to stay around 30% in the opinion polls for the next election. One upshot is the latest OECD figures show low and middle income workers in Australia had the highest increase in personal income taxes Continue reading »
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A silent coup in plain sight: AUKUS and the universities
An invitation: imagine a country wherein, as a matter of policy orientation, its 41 universities have abdicated one of their principal founding roles – to be dominant sites of secular critique practised by people capable of living what they teach and committed to taking aim at the unequal, imperial, antidemocrática present. Imagine, too, that this Continue reading »
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Opening the door to the devil
As Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines all move closer to US-led military architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, experts warn of the consequences. Continue reading »
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“Fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit”: NZ should steer clear of AUKUS
I don’t want to appall the diplomats present by using a vulgarism, but Pillar two [of AUKUS] is fragrant methane-wrapped bullshit. Australia and New Zealand are beautifully placed to nurture and defend a different model of relationships between the prevailing power [the US] and the rising power [China]: A different approach from the one that Continue reading »
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The National Defence Strategy – a fatal fault line in Australia’s security
Last Wednesday Defence Minister Richard Marles blustered his way through a speech and Q&A at the National Press Club. He presented the National Defence Strategy (NDS) to the nation – a document laden with the jargon of new defence priorities, AUKUS and a plan for our military to ‘project power’. Continue reading »
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Joining AUKUS not in NZ’s national interest
Helen Clark, o how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister – the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory – gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held in Parliament’s old Legislative Chambers on April 18. Continue reading »
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No substitute for US exceptionalism: Manifest destiny made manifest
Manifest Destiny, now more commonly called American Exceptionalism is a traditional and widespread view in the US. American views of its relationship with the world vary from isolationism to leadership, but the underlying base is always that the US is something special. While some may be more subtle than others, how many Americans could accept Continue reading »
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Terra nullius 2.0 – what AUKUS means for First Nations peoples
Australia will essentially become America’s military launch-pad into Asia. However, Ben Abbatangelo writes, little has been said or written about the drastic and disproportionate impacts it will have on First Nations communities in Australia. Continue reading »
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Lest We Forget: Japan joining AUKUS a stark reminder of China’s Century of Humiliation
With the addition of Japan, AUKUS ceases to be a device to supply nuclear powered submarines to Australia several decades in the future but a stark reminder of the oppressive powers that abused Chinese sovereignty in the 19th and 20th centuries. Continue reading »
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The United States leaves a mess in Ukraine, moves on to China
The US State Department’s No 2 now admits the AUKUS joint submarine project between three of the Five Eyes is tied to Taiwan and mainland China. Continue reading »
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Who pays the piper…universities dance to the AUKUS tune
When AUKUS was announced, the ANU was quick off the mark to cash in. Continue reading »
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AUKUS and military escalation – Who pays and who benefits?
On 12th March, IPAN ACT held a webinar in Canberra entitled AUKUS and Military Escalation – Who pays and who benefits? View the must-watch speeches from Alan Behm, Hugh White, Sue Wareham and Michelle Fahy below. Continue reading »
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Health professions urged to speak up on AUKUS and its threats to health and safety
At first sight there might not seem to be much connection between health and the AUKUS military alliance. But the threats posed by AUKUS to health are multiple and strong, at local, national, regional and global levels. A serious examination of those threats should form an important part of preventive healthcare. Continue reading »
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Universities make astounding discovery: AUKUS lacks a social licence!
A not-so-happy anniversary: Usually, a first anniversary is an occasion for all-round rejoicing and back-slapping. So, it was to be expected that there’d be universal self-congratulation on the first anniversary of Anthony Albanese’s, Rishi Sunak’s and Joe Biden’s announcement on 13 March 2023 that Australia would purchase nuclear-powered attack-class submarines from the US as part Continue reading »
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Dead in the water: The AUKUS SSN delusion
The general theme of delusion and the particular theme of ‘dead in the water’ as they apply to the entire AUKUS arrangements are provocations worthy of taking further. Continue reading »
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“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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It’s a huge policy failure that Australia can’t defend itself
Not unexpectedly, the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project has run into reality as Virginia class production slows down, leaving Australia with no Defence policy. A huge strategic failure, if endorsed government assessments are believed, which has left Australia vulnerable and dependent on America. Continue reading »
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AUKUS: risks, risks and more risks
Instead of actually engaging in measures to promote peace, the AUKUS governments are feeding us a racist notion that three Anglo nations targeting China from thousands of kilometres away are needed to ensure it. Continue reading »
