Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

AUKUS makes Australia a nuclear target, top experts warn

Rob Harris, September 3, 2026 —https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/aukus-makes-australia-a-nuclear-target-top-experts-warn-20260902-p60tnk.html

Australia is significantly more likely to be dragged into a destructive conflict with China — and potentially targeted with nuclear weapons — under the AUKUS security pact, two former senior national security figures have warned.

Michael Keating, a former Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary, and former public servant Jon Stanford argue that the federal government’s current defence posture has “sacrificed considerable sovereignty” to the United States while leaving the country uniquely vulnerable without a guaranteed security safety net.

The pair will front a crowd-funded public inquiry into the AUKUS submarine pact on Thursday, urging the federal government to immediately redesign its national strategy, cancel plans to acquire American Virginia-class and British-designed SSN AUKUS nuclear-powered attack submarines, and pivot to low-enriched uranium vessels sourced from France or South Korea.

Keating, the most senior public servant during the Hawke-Keating era, spent 11 years on the Secretaries Committee on National Security – including five years as chairman – while Stanford has extensive background in submarine research and defence policy.

“Under AUKUS, Australia’s security is under greater threat while it has become increasingly clear that we cannot rely on the US for our defence,” they write in their submission. “We are now in a situation where, because of the AUKUS strategy of integrated deterrence in defence of US regional primacy, Australia is more likely to be attacked, potentially with nuclear weapons”.

They cite prescient warnings from former French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who noted in 2021 that Australia had made a choice “to the detriment of sovereignty” and predicted it would discover later it had sacrificed both security and self-determination.

According to the submission, the policy of “integrated deterrence” and “pooled sovereignty” effectively converts Australian military facilities into forward operating locations for US forces without giving Canberra oversight or veto power.

They point out that unlike allies such as Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, Australia lacks a formal US security guarantee, such as NATO’s Article V.

Yet, by developing command and basing infrastructure – such as the US submarine squadron facilities at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia – Australia becomes a prime military target.

“If there is a war between the US and China, Australia will inevitably be involved … even if we do not provide military support,” the submission states, adding that escalating hostilities could leave Australia open to nuclear strikes.

Fronting the first day of the hearings in Canberra on Wednesday, former home affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo called for a deeper military integration with the US, agreeing that Australia could surrender sovereignty under the current AUKUS without gaining a meaningful say in decisions that could draw it into a war with China.

Pezzullo, a national security hawk and former senior public servant under the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, was sacked by Labor in 2023 after confidential messages between him and Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs were leaked to this masthead. The Australian Public Service Commission subsequently found he had breached the public service code of conduct on 14 occasions.

“If I was a Chinese war planner,” Pezzullo said, “I would flatten every single potential facility that might be used overnight by Americans flying in.”

He said facilities including Tindal, Stirling, North West Cape and Pine Gap could be targeted in such a conflict.

But Pezzullo said AUKUS’s nuclear-powered submarine program would transform Australia’s military options, giving the navy greater speed, endurance and reach while opening the way for a new generation of autonomous underwater systems.

Undersea warfare would be critical in any future conflict, from anti-submarine operations to intelligence gathering, he said.

At the same time, Pezzullo said Australia should not commit to fighting alongside the US in every future conflict.

“Alliances are political documents first and foremost,” he said, arguing that countries must retain the ability to make sovereign decisions when a conflict actually occurs.

But he said those political alliances needed military planning and preparation underneath them.

Australia, he said, could either try to remain outside a future US-China conflict and accept the consequences if Washington lost, or strengthen its alliance with the US in the hope that the combined deterrent would prevent war.

“The only choice would be whether we want to sit it out and hope for the best,” Pezzullo said. “I think that’s not plausible.”

The choice was whether to remain on the sidelines and accept the consequences if Washington lost, or deepen the alliance in the hope that Australian involvement would strengthen deterrence.

“I prefer that latter approach,” Pezzullo said. “The war machine is the thing that prevents the war.”

September 4, 2026 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) report on 2026 meeting

What is ANFA?  (from FOE)

Formed in 1997 by the late Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, the founder and first president of ANFA, alongside current president Auntie Sue Coleman-Haseldine, the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance brings together Aboriginal people and relevant civil society groups concerned about existing or proposed nuclear developments in Australia, particularly on Aboriginal homelands. . 

The Alliance provides a forum for sharing knowledge, skills and experience. It is an opportunity to come together and find strength through our shared aims to protect Country and culture from nuclear developments. The Alliance helped to build the successful campaign to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory, and proposed national nuclear waste dumps in South Australia and Muckaty in the NT. Currently, Aboriginal communities face a wave of uranium exploration, rehabilitation and remediation of former mine sites, several proposed new uranium mines, and the threat of AUKUS nuclear waste dumping.

2026 ANFA meeting statement , https://anfa.org.au/2026-anfa-meeting-statement/?mc_cid=8858980633&mc_eid=261607298d

From sunrise to sunset, it’s all Traditional Land”

Nukunu Country August 14-16th, 2026

The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) held its national gathering on Nukunu Country in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia over the weekend of August 14-16th, 2026.

The ANFA network connects Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and groups concerned about and responding to nuclear threats. This weekend was the 29th annual meeting of the network. ANFA has played a big part in many important campaigns to stop nuclear projects across Australia. 

The meeting began with an acknowledgement of the powerful leaders who started ANFA and welcomed representatives of the next generations to the meeting. Delegates collectively paid tribute to many beloved Elders and community members who have passed. 

Over the weekend, ANFA strongly reaffirmed its opposition to all uranium projects. Communities from South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia talked about the threats and pressure for new and expanded uranium mines, the lasting legacy and impact from operating mines and the difficult, ongoing work to rehabilitate these sites. South Australian representatives also shared important stories about the impacts of uranium mining on water.  The meeting committed to carry on Uncle Kevin Buzzacott’s lifelong efforts to end unsustainable water extraction from Borefields A and B at Roxby Downs.

Dr Jillian Marsh reminded delegates: “For hundreds of thousands of years we’ve known about uranium as a poison, this comes from our Yura Muda. Our knowledge systems refer to poison ground and poison wind; we have known about it for many generations and we have never given our free prior and informed consent for the extraction and transportation of uranium.” 

The ANFA meeting united communities concerned about impact from the proposed AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine agreement. Many places in Australia are threatened by plans for submarine construction, new ports and radioactive waste sites as part of this flawed agreement. Delegates representing Osborne at Port Augusta in South Australia, Stirling at Meandip (Garden Island) in Western Australia and Port Kembla in New South Wales shared concerns about the lack of information and meaningful consent, the impacts of a military build up in those communities and the risks of nuclear waste. 

Members expressed concern that the AUKUS proposal increases pressure from Government to find a radioactive waste storage site and for the first time there are now private companies seeking to play a role in nuclear waste management at sites in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The meeting resolved to support any communities being pressured to take nuclear waste and to call out any secretive proposals such as those disguised as salt mining.

Anangu Tjuratja descendants and Maralinga survivors and descendants shared stories of survival, black mist and health impacts and forced removal from their homelands. “Our people died from that bomb, we say no to poison land” said Yallata community member Roslyn Peters.

ANFA welcomed second and third generation Hiroshima hibakusha Yumi and Moeko who shared stories of the impacts they have inherited from the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

The meeting learned about the health impacts and risks caused by radiation in all its forms and that the legacy of contamination, poison and sickness remains today.

Delegates were reminded to “Stand up, talk loud” and that “First Nations mob network with one another” and sent strong messages of solidarity to the Hayes family resisting the militarisation of their land at Pine Gap. 

ANFA celebrates the sustained intergenerational resistance of communities across the country as well as ongoing efforts to build a nuclear free future. ANFA is nearing its third decade of peaceful resistance against the nuclear industry and members look forward to celebrating this milestone in 2027.

————————-

Communities represented: Adnyamathanha, Googatha, Ngemba, Yallata, Mirning, Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri, Arabunna, Kuyani, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Walmumpa, Kaurni, Mirarr, Wongutha, Noongar.

Organisations represented: Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Friends of the Earth, Australian Conservation Foundation, Nuclear Truth Project, Don’t Nuke the Climate, Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Nuclear Free WA, People for Nuclear Disarmament.

September 4, 2026 Posted by | opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment