Australia to get secret tests of UK’s killer drone aircraft
Drones have become a mainstay of warfare but are shrouded in secrecy. The US, ramping up its drone program under President Barack Obama, has used them against “kill list” targets in place such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Britain’s Taranis tests Australia appealed because it contains a lot of wide open spaces with next to no electromagnetic signals. He believed the tests would take place around Woomera in South Australia…..
It is estimated about 3000 people have been killed in US drone strikes, including hundreds of civilians
$190 million drone coming to Australia, The Age Asher Moses, January 16, 2013 An unmanned British stealth drone that can fly faster than the speed of sound and go undetected by radar will soon have its first test flight in Australia.
The £125 million ($190 million) Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, can attack targets across continents, automatically dodge missiles and other efforts to bring it down and independently identify targets. It can refuel in mid-air and carry weapons including laser guided bombs and missiles.
Designed to avoid having to put human lives at risk (?) Continue reading
Australia’s government shifts stand from nuclear non proliferation, to marketing uranium
Australian uranium sales overlook India’s nuclear history Crikey, NAJ TAYLOR | NOV 16, 2011 So with prime minister Julia Gillard yesterday proposing Australia begin selling uranium to India, it appears to me successive Labor governments are fumbling their way through nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament issues……
Over the past 12 months, Labor’s position has shifted from one giving primacy to international arms control norms so that Australia had in place a non-negotiable recipient adherence requirement, to one in which Gillard has deemed those very same principles as incurring “all pain with no gain” since exports to India “will be good for the Australian economy, and good for Australian jobs”…..
Quite simply, India acquired nuclear weapons outside of the NPT, and has belatedly complied with IAEA at a level far below that required of NPT signatory states, with few of the consequences since what cooperation is given is fully outside of many of the instruments of international law. That says nothing of the added complexity nuclear weapons have had on existing India-Pakistan tensions.
According to the Australia and Japan-led International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament report in 2009:
“10.5… One criticism – frequently voiced since the India agreement – is that [Nuclear Suppliers Group] members may be driven by commercial incentives to be less rigorous in their approach to countries not applying comprehensive safeguards or not party to the NPT.”
“10.7 The main substantive problem with the deal is that it removed all non-proliferation barriers to nuclear trade with India in return for very few significant non-proliferation and disarmament commitments by it. The view was taken that partial controls – with civilian facilities safeguarded – were better than none.”
Two years after these dire warnings – by an International Commission co-chaired by our former foreign minister Gareth Evans and instigated by then prime minister Rudd – Gillard also appears to be primarily “driven by comercial incentives”…….
I believe what Senator Ludlam seemed to suggest yesterday was right: Australia’s priority must be nuclear security not sales, and all sales – not just those earmarked by Ferguson to go to India – must be subject to stricter controls if Australia is to continue to help drive global nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation….
Ploughshares president Joe Cirincione’s interview with ABC is telling. Joe highlights how the US deal – which influenced Gillard’s shift – on nuclear energy “encouraged India to expand nuclear weapons programme” and “fuel arms race”. Pity there’s little other debate along these arms control lines with analysts here.
Senator Ludlum has chimed in again on National Community Radio surmising: “what we are doing is freeing up their domestic [uranium] supply for nuclear weapons” …. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/this-blog-harms/2011/11/16/australian-uranium-sales-overlook-indias-nuclear-history/
Unpopularity of USA missile testing in Australia
US missile tests backfired for PM BY: BRENDAN NICHOLSON The
Australian January 01, 2013 WHEN Bob Hawke gave the nod to an American
plan to fire some of their new MX intercontinental ballistic missiles
into the ocean 220km east of Tasmania, the Labor leader made one of
the biggest miscalculations of an illustrious career.
His decision triggered a wave of renewed anti-American feeling,
protests and, cabinet documents reveal, a carefully planned backdown
by the Labor government.
In 1981 the Fraser government had told the Americans it was fine for
them to carry out the tests but, probably not wanting to startle the
Tasmanians, Malcolm Fraser’s team neglected to tell anyone about this
undertaking. Continue reading
Australia and China to join in war games
Report: Australia Plans War Games with China, Defense News,
Dec. 27, 201 By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE SYDNEY — Australia and China
are planning joint military exercises that may also include the United
States as the nations work to ensure stability in the region,
Canberra’s defense chief said Dec. 27.
Gen. David Hurley told The Australian newspaper that the war games
were “on the short-term horizon.”
“We’re working our way towards that,” he said.
The planned exercises come as Washington pushes to bolster its
military might in the strategically vital Asia-Pacific amid concerns
about China’s increasing assertiveness and territorial tensions with
its neighbors.
This includes an enhanced U.S. naval presence in the region and the
deployment of up to 2,500 Marines to a barracks near the northern
Australian city of Darwin.
The Marines contingent has irked Beijing, which has described its
presence as proof of a “Cold-War mentality”.
Hurley revealed that Australian and Chinese military leaders had
discussed joint exercises “in principle.”…. “When, where and in what
form would be the next iteration of the discussion.”…. Hurley said
he wanted to see strong military-to-military links throughout the
region, including with Beijing…..
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20121227/DEFREG03/312270002/Report-Australia-Plans-War-Games-China?odyssey=nav%7Chead
Australian security scholar Des Ball saved us all from nuclear war
Des Ball: the man who saved the world, The Age, December 21, 2012, David Wroe, THAT America could launch a limited nuclear strike against Russia was a fashionable belief in US strategic theory of the 1970s. Policymakers thought that if Cold War tensions boiled over, they could hit selected Soviet targets in a way that controlled further
escalation and forced Moscow to back down.
It took the iconoclastic Australian security scholar Des Ball to point out that the theory was bunkum. In his influential essays of the early 1980s, Ball argued that reasoned strategic theory was likely to go out the window once the missiles started flying. Among the first targets would be the other side’s command and control centres – its eyes and ears. Once blinded, a superpower – consisting of real people responding with human instincts – would not distinguish a ”controlled” strike from a full-scale attack and would retaliate with everything it had.
A controlled exchange would quickly become all-out nuclear war. Today, none other than former US president Jimmy Carter says that Ball’s work helped save the world from potential holocaust. In a new book of essays honouring Ball’s four decades helping to keep Australia and the world a safer place, Carter says Ball’s ”counsel and cautionary advice, based on deep research, made a great difference to our collective goal of avoiding nuclear war”.
Released last week, the book, Insurgent Intellectual: Essays in Honour of Professor Desmond Ball, is an extraordinary outpouring of praise for a colossus of strategic thinking in Australia – albeit one who stands out as an odd fit among his generation of largely conservative colleagues.
Ball, who is marking his 25th year as a special professor at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, cuts an unusual figure with his beard, rumpled clothing and rat’s tail hair………
http://www.theage.com.au/national/des-ball-the-man-who-saved-the-world-20121220-2bpdd.html#ixzz2FiJCmAdw
Gutless Australian government would not support UN resolution on depleted uranium
Australia on depleted uranium – can’t lead and won’t follow Australia on depleted uranium – can’t lead and won’t follow 07 Nov 2012 Despite pretentions to playing a leading role in world affairs, the Australian Government showed a complete lack of leadership in the United Nations vote on depleted uranium.
Greens spokesperson for nuclear policy Senator Scott Ludlam said the decision to abstain from the vote on a resolution on depleted uranium weapons was “as inexplicable as it is disgusting”.
“This was the United Nations First Committee’s most far-reaching resolution on DU weapons to date, and 138 countries said yes – but the Australian Government couldn’t find the guts to get off the fence.
“The resolution recalls the positions taken by the UN Environment Programme following their fieldwork on DU affected sites in the Balkans. The Programme called for a precautionary approach to depleted uranium – reinforced by stringent clean-up and decontamination operations, awareness raising measures to reduce the risk of civilian exposure, and for the long-term monitoring of contaminated sites.
“Studies indicate that cancer rates and infant mortality rates increase in areas where depleted uranium armaments have been used. DU weapons should be banned entirely – yet the Australian Government was not prepared to back a moderately-worded proposal on mitigating the impact of depleted uranium.”
The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) needed, as AUSMIN locks Australia into USA militarism
why is the Australian government co-operating in United States planning for the military containment of China? There is no threat to Australia
Stirling naval base south of Perth is set to become a major base for US operations in the region although details are not yet confirmed. Some reports suggest that US nuclear submarines may be based in Stirling.
The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) was set up recently with the expressed aim of organising against this gathering rush by the Australian government further into an unquestioning and subservient relationship with the US and its arms corporations.
AUSMIN confirms Australia’s subservience to US military, The Guardian, Denis Doherty, 20 Nov 12,
AUSMIN, the annual talks between the Australian and US foreign and defence ministers, have come and gone for another year and the agreement reached makes depressing reading for Australians who want to live in peace and prosperity.
The AUSMIN communiqué outlines plans for the future benefit for US corporations at the expense of the people of
the Indo Pacific region. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta and their Australian counterparts Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Defence Minister Stephen Smith met for the AUSMIN talks on November 14 in Perth. Continue reading
Australia is complicit in USA’s militarisation of space
AUSMIN confirms Australia’s subservience to US military, The Guardian, Denis Doherty, 20 Nov 12,”…..In the AUSMIN talks Australia has agreed to establish a space surveillance station which has the aim of detecting space debris. It will be established at the US North West Cape facility in WA. Efforts to stop space debris hitting commercial satellites are welcome. However, the station will also have the capability to gather intelligence to target other satellites and will be configured to provide an interface for anti-satellite warfare.
In its headlong drive to control the planet, the US is also working to control space – and Australia is complicit in this.
Space should be used for the benefit of all humanity and Australia should promote the UN resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS)….. http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2012/1574/06-ausmin-confirms.html
Liberal Party leaders keen for Australia to buy US nuclear submarines
Coalition leaders float nuclear navy Financial Review CHRISTOPHER JOYE, 10 Nov 12
Top Coalition leaders want to open the debate over the purchase of nuclear submarines to replace the navy’s diesel fleet, a huge step up in Australia’s military capability in response to China’s plan to become a major maritime power in the Pacific Ocean.
Senior Coalition frontbenchers told The Weekend Financial Review that acquiring or leasing 
Virginia-class nuclear submarines equipped with conventional weapons, such as cruise missiles, would be supported by the Obama Administration.
Purchasing the submarines is not yet Coalition policy but some shadow ministers have discussed the idea with United States officials….. In discussions with defence experts US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich reiterated American willingness to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, which could receive technical support at US naval bases in Hawaii and Guam. In the longer term, this could lead to a joint Australian-US submarine base in the west or north of Australia. Continue reading
Australia’s pathetically weak role in the international Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT )
Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr makes much of weak treaties like this one. I would trust Bob Carr about as far as I could throw him. Carr is an enthusiastic member of Australia’s pro nuclear elite. He is adept at publicising seemingly effective nuclear disarmament moves – but when you look at them properly moves like this much vaunted strengthening of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT ) – are really hypocritical sops to those of us who are anxious about nuclear weapons – Christina Macpherson
AUSTRALIA-NZ PACT FALLS SHORT OF ABOLISHING NUKES IDN-InDepthNews – October 21, 2012 By Neena Bhandari SYDNEY – Australia and New Zealand have entered into a scientific and technical cooperation agreement to strengthen detection of nuclear explosions under the framework of the international Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT ) and work together to promote a permanent and effective ban on nuclear weapon tests….. The move would see Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and Geoscience Australia working more closely with New Zealand’s Environmental Science and Research (ESR) to enhance their capabilities to detect nuclear explosions……
‘Move quickly to a Nuclear Weapons Convention’
But Chairman of the Mayors for Peace Foundation and former expert advisor to the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation , Steve Leeper, feels countries like Australia that have signed and ratified the CTBT should be doing far more than talking about a new framework.
“It makes it look like the two countries are doing something about nuclear weapons when what they are really doing is refusing to support the nuclear weapons convention. Continue reading
Cancer in Australia’s soldier witnesses of Monte Bello atomic bomb tests
AUDIO: Atom bomb veterans mark anniversary (PM)
Atom bomb veterans remember life-changing blast ABC News Radio 4 Oct 12, PM By Brendan 
Trembath Sixty years since Britain tested its first atom bomb in Australia, those who witnessed the blast – many who now have cancer – have reunited to talk about how it changed their lives. The veterans are still seeking an apology from the Federal Government and appropriate health care for them and their children.
Official records say those serving on the HMAS Murchison on October 3, 1952, were 70 miles away when Britain successfully detonated an atomic bomb on the Monte Bello islands, off the coast of the Pilbara in Western Australia.
But to this day, many who were there say they were much closer.
Michael Rowe was on board the ship and remembers the moment the bomb went off.
“We were told to face east, which we did, and then we were told we could turn around and face west and we saw the first British atom bomb go off,” he said…… “We were clothed to protect ourselves in a pair of shorts and sandals. That’s all,” he said.
Mr Rowe is also among those who say they were much closer to ground zero than what is officially recorded and he has photos which he says proves it. “There’s been big arguments over the years about how far away the Murchison was from the actual bomb site, but I had a little tiny camera that I had hidden down inside my shorts and I took a photograph of that bomb going off, a very clear photograph of the bomb going off,” he said.
“All the records show that we were 70 miles away and there was no way in the world you could’ve taken this photograph from 70 miles.”
Mr Rowe says he and others onboard the ship think they were about 12 to 15 nautical miles east of the blast site. I’ve had a great life. Done lots of things, been lots of places but I always seem to have something wrong with me and it was only on September 19 that I was diagnosed with multiple cancers, terminal cancers. He is one of the 23 known surviving national servicemen from HMAS Murchison.
But like many who were there that day, Mr Rowe now has cancer. “I’ve had a great life. Done lots of things, been lots of places but I always seem to have something wrong with me and it was only on September 19 that I was diagnosed with multiple cancers, terminal cancers,” he said.
Fellow crew member Ken Palmer was not well enough to attend the lunch but his wife Robyn came in his place.
“He has secondaries from thyroid cancer as a result of the blast. They were exposed to the radiation, but he’s doing well, yes, he’s doing well,” she said….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-03/atom-bomb-veterans-remember-blast-that-changed-lives/4294276
Australia to work with New Zealand to strengthen nuclear test monitoring
Australia-New Zealand agreement to strengthen nuclear test monitoring. Global Times 29 Sept 12, Government scientists from New Zealand and Australia Friday announced a new agreement to work together to strengthen detection of nuclear explosions under the framework of the international Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Continue reading
Australia would back USA and Israel attacking Iran, just like it backed attack on Iraq
Gillard’s statements on Iran were a declaration of Australian support for war.
Gillard asserted that Iran “refuses to take the urgent steps necessary to build confidence that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”
In fact, Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities have repeatedly uncovered no evidence of the development of nuclear weapons—any more than UN inspectors found “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq.
Australian PM demands UN rubberstamp war on Syria and Iran World Socialist Website By James Cogan 28 September 2012 Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, demanding that the UN endorse imperialist intervention into Syria and rubberstamp a US bombardment of Iran… Continue reading
Australia getting dangerously locked in to USA military operations in the Pacific
An Australian General, Major General Richard Burr, has become a deputy commander of United States Army Pacific. He will be responsible for planning and advising on the further expansion of American armed forces throughout the Western Pacific.
Australia hostage to the politics of the US in the Asian Century, The Drum, MALCOLM FRASER, 27 Sept 12,
This week Malcolm Fraser delivered a speech on Australia-US relations in the Asian Century. In this edited extract, the former prime minister says our Government has made us hostage to the politics of the United States. Australia has, under this Labor Government and with apparent consent of the Coalition, become the southern bastion of America’s re-arming in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. This is an extraordinary consequence of Australian Government ineptitude and of military planning, which might recognise America’s interest, but pays little account of our own.
It makes us complicit in any military activity that the Americans might undertake. Continue reading
Australia in danger, as part of USA’s military machine
Is it time to downgrade US defence? Business Spectator, Jackson Hewett , 26 Sep 2012 Malcolm Fraser says it is time we end our “dangerous and foolish” complicity with US military policy in the Asian region and renegotiate the ANZUS treaty.
He calls Defence Minister Stephen Smith’s assertion that joint US Australian military operations are not bases as “political spin of the worst kind”, something that Professor Richard Tanter, the Director of the Nautilus Institute for security studies agrees with.
Fraser says that the 2500 marines on permanent rotation in the Northern Territory, proposed US surveillance bases in the Cocos Islands and expanded roles of Pine Gap linked to US bomber command in Hawaii, send a clear message that Australia is becoming the “the southern bastion of America’s re-arming in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia” – something that “spells danger for the entire region”. If citizens fully understood the level of US control over
military operations here, there would be “rage across Australia”.
Fraser is calling for a complete review of the ANZUS treaty and says that we have failed to work within the treaty’s stated aim of “consultation” on defence, and instead we have become “supplicants” who uncritically take part in American wars.
It is time, Fraser says, to show “the guts, the grit and the gumption” to communicate to the region that we are independent of America. Under current American policy, Fraser believes, our unwavering alliance with the US puts us in more danger than not….. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/us-alliance-america-australia-china-foreign-policy-pd20120926-YH2Q9?OpenDocument&src=sph%20&src=rot
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
21 April Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-04-21 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-04-21 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
Event Type: Virtual
A virtual link will be communicated before the event.
Host Contact Info: australia@icanw.org
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 