Public meeting in Canberra, 6pm Tuesday 12 March, at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton
What is AUKUS and why are we getting into it? What are its dangers?
See individual videos of all 4 speakers on this IPAN KZitem channel
SPEAKERS:
Emeritus Prof Hugh White, ANU Strategic Studies and former senior defence officer and analyst, adviser to Bob Hawke and Defence Minister Kim Beazley, and author of the acclaimed, How to Defend Australia.
“When Labor won office it inherited a defence program catastrophically inadequate to the strategic challenges of the next few decades. The worst of it was the Coalition’s AUKUS nuclear submarines plan…Last year it committed to deliver nuclear-powered subs that we do not need and will never get…”
Dr Sue Wareham is President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War, and is Secretary of Australians for War Powers Reform. She has previously been on the boards of ICAN Australia (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. She is a former Canberra GP.
“The AUKUS agreement is a disaster in every respect. What Australians will get from it is a sky’s-the-limit financial cost, increased tensions in the region, an even greater risk of finding ourselves in a catastrophic war against China, a greater risk of being targeted in such a war , a greater risk of nuclear war, a pathway for a future Australian government to develop nuclear weapons, intractable high level nuclear waste and even greater hurdles to getting rid of nuclear weapons globally. No wonder two successive governments have been too scared to have any debate whatsoever about it.”
Michelle Fahy is an investigative journalist researching and writing about the revolving door between government and the arms industry, as well as the arms industry corruption more broadly.
“At a time of decreasing transparency and accountability for record spending on armaments, the need for this [revolving doors] database has never been greater. AUKUS alone is expected to cost Australian taxpayers more than $350 billion. Exposing the insidious links between weapons corporations and the public sector is essential. Before an egregious practice can be stamped out, it must be documented.”
Allan Behm is Director of the International and Security Program at The Australia Institute, Canberra. Previously he held senior positions in the Attorney-General’s Department and in the Department of Defence. He was Chief of Staff to Greg Combet from 2009 to 2013, and more recently senior advisor to Senator Penny Wong.
"Australia's foreign and security policy successes, stretching back to its first days as a Commonwealth, are few and far between. More often, it has been a bit player, bumptious and condescending to its neighbours while remaining deeply deferential towards its principal protectors...we must ask ourselves why Australia is so adept at creating an international image that is so inept."
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