Pacta sunt servanda – once more

July 9, 2026

Jeremy Rose puts it clearly. From PM Morrison’s decision to the current regime, Australian electors have not been told how AUKUS is compatible with the Treaty of Rarotonga. Are we to assume that AUKUS is born of a desire to safeguard the nuclear free zone within which we say we are committed to live? How now are we in Australia to locate ourselves in the “Ocean of Peace”? What response be given to the CCP/PLA dominated Government in Beijing about its recent effort to prove how powerful it can be and its crazy justification, if our Government does not come to view AUKUS as a serious destabilising mistake? How can Australia’s commitment to the “Ocean of Peace” reaffirm our Treaty obligations from 1985-1986 if the opportunity isn’t taken now to invite China to reaffirm its previous endorsement of that Treaty as Australia cancels AUKUS? Why shouldn’t Australia advise China to join in renouncing a future under the security of mutually assured destruction? Yes, Australia should ditch AUKUS to affirm the high priority of being a true South West Pacific partner, and by doing so find rehabilitation in a way of life that isn’t addicted to nuclear Kool-aid.