“AUKUS represents a failure to recognise the end of US hegemony”, writes Doug Cameron. It makes Australia a target and must be abandoned.
I have been an active member of the ALP for over 50 years. I am currently joint national patron of Labor Against War, the grassroots Labor movement against AUKUS.
This year I have been proud to have taken a part in the working secretariat for the AUKUS Public Inquiry. This was a landmark exercise in citizen democracy to engage the public in reviewing the most consequential – and expensive – military decision made by an Australian government in peacetime.
As the Lead Commissioner of the Inquiry, Peter Garrett asked as we launched the inquiry’s report last week, “where was the vigorous debate in the caucus? Where was the vigorous debate in the cabinet? We don’t have any sense that there’s been a debate.”
My party once valued robust debate,
encouraged critical analysis, and used different points of view to develop sound policies such as nuclear non-proliferation, anti-war sentiment. This enabled Simon Crean’s courageous leadership in opposing sending Australian troops to Iraq in 2003.
In 1985, the caucus overruled Bob Hawke to reject Ronald Reagan’s request to test MX Missiles in Australian sovereign waters.
Those days are a distant memory.
Debate gives way to incumbency
Many members are disappointed that progressive policies are increasingly subjugated to incrementalism and maintaining incumbency.
Rubber stamping the AUKUS deal within 24 hours is a case in point. A deal conceived in secret that the AUKUS inquiry has found to be the “worst, most costly and riskiest defence decision ever made by an Australian government”.
The AUKUS pact surrenders our sovereignty by expanding the hosting of US bases, engaging in the “containment” of our most important trading partner China, and turning a blind eye to nuclear weapons on board US submarines, warships and aircraft.
We have even refused to join with many of our international partners in implementing sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements. All in order not to upset Donald Trump, the US military establishment and their Israeli partners.
We are paying a monumental economic and political price for AUKUS.
Denying and suppressing debate on Palestine and AUKUS at the last national conference will be a Pyrrhic victory for the Labor hierarchy as more and more rank-and-file members justifiably feel ignored, sidelined and divorced from engagement in their own party.
Promoting a false sense of unity at the expense of debate, policy action and building a good society is counter-productive and destined to result in many incumbent Labor politicians losing their seat at the next election.
Progressive patriotism?
Many Labor members are dismayed at the militarisation of our manufacturing industry at the expense of a broad-based industry policy producing socially beneficial goods and products such as modular housing, medical and pharmaceutical goods, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy components, transport infrastructure, and environmental engineering.
It is disgraceful that Labor members who inquire into, express concern or oppose AUKUS are labelled as “appeasers’’ by those who seem intent on reviving a modern-day ALP version of McCarthyism.
Others have retreated to rhetorical nonsense such as “progressive patriotism”, pretending it’s about a range of issues when it is designed to cloak the militarisation of our manufacturing industry. In reality it is about subservience to the US and its military-industrial complex. A shocking place for the Labor Left to end up.
It is understandable that Labor wanted to avoid being “wedged’’ by the Coalition at the 2022 election. Nevertheless, there was an obligation on Labor, upon winning government, to conduct due diligence, engage in open parliamentary debate, and seek political and social licence for AUKUS if they considered this in the national interest.
History will judge
History will judge AUKUS as a capitulation to US imperialism and hegemony.
Reverting to an historic mindset that requires a powerful protector while relying on the US and UK in what Professor Clinton Fernandes describes as acting as a sub-imperial power, beggars’ belief.
AUKUS should be scrapped and a comprehensive national security strategy capable of gaining political and social licence should be developed.
We need a Royal Commission into the process,
procedures and implementation of AUKUS.
We need submarines to defend Australia, not attack class submarines designed to take offensive action against China in its own backyard.
A multipolar world
Shallow justifications for AUKUS such as keeping our sea lanes open, protecting undersea communications infrastructure, defending the rules-based order, creating jobs and widening the manufacturing base do not, as the public inquiry has shown, stand up to critical analysis.
AUKUS represents a failure to recognise the end of US hegemony and the emergence of China in a multipolar world.
It is an example forelock tugging servility,
the antithesis of sovereignty and independence.
Perhaps because Labor cabinet ministers spend too much time with self-serving ideologues and China hawks, they have embraced AUKUS and the consequential subservience to the United States. This betrays long-held Labor values epitomised by John Curtin’s determination to act as an autonomous nation rather than a subordinate Dominion.
Government members are now faced with attempting to justify building public housing at taxpayers’ expense for 2300 active-duty US sailors, civilian staff, defence contractors and military dependents while disadvantaged Australians are homeless with many couch surfing or living on the street.
A radioactive legacy
Many poor and middle-class Australians are battling to maintain their standard of living while the government recklessly commits $368 billion to AUKUS plus an estimated $180 billion to store and protect highly enriched uranium waste.
No country, has solved the storage problem.
This will be a radioactive legacy left by the current Labor for future generations
The public inquiry report should be compulsory reading for all Australians who value peace, independence, sovereignty and engagement with our largest and most important trading partner China.
It is also compulsory reading for those who want a grown-up relationship with the United States.
It was an honour to be involved in the establishment and operation of the AUKUS inquiry. We owe the Commissioners a debt of respect and gratitude.
AUKUS makes Australia a target
AUKUS is a failure of government, a failure of democracy, a failure of due diligence and demonstrates a lack of political courage to change a faltering, massively expensive and increasingly unpopular policy. AUKUS makes Australia a nuclear target.
It is never too late to do the right thing.
As the Prime Minister’s mentor, lion of the left and peace activist the late Tom Uren said: “If you believe in your heart that a cause is just, you must fight for it because today’s unfashionable stance often becomes tomorrows accepted wisdom.’’
An increasing number of Australians, including Labor members recognise Tom’s wisdom and the need to fight against the AUKUS debacle.
Doug Cameron is a retired Australian politician and trade unionist. He served as a Senator for New South Wales and Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.