Jillian Segal’s report turns criticism of Israel into a punishable offence.
By Evan Jones | 23 August 2025, Independent Australia
Segal’s report recasts anti-Zionism as hate — policing schools, agencies and visas while punishing dissent across public life, writes Dr Evan Jones.
THE SEGAL REPORT heralds that all educational institutions, public institutions and the public service be permanently policed for hints of “antisemitism”.
Add potential migrants and asylum seekers, who will be blocked from entry for having the wrong experience and opinions. Given that anti-Zionism is made synonymous with antisemitism, it demands a comprehensive mandate in obliterating any criticism of and action against the abomination that is the state of Israel.
Being South African-born, although brought to Australia as a child, Jillian Segal presumably has imbibed the rudiments of what constitutes an apartheid state and society. Segal has not taken the short, obvious step. Can I recommend apartheid Israel for beginners: Uri Davis’ 2003 Apartheid Israel?
Jillian Segal’s ultra-Zionism is well known – her Wikipedia entry notes her attachment prominently:
‘She is the immediate past president of the “ardently pro-Israel” Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). Segal has long been an advocate for Israel in Australia. She has been chair of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce since 2015.’
She has thus been not merely a fellow traveller but front and centre.
Crikey’s Bernard Keane (as did others) immediately questioned Segal’s appointment as antisemitism envoy on 9 July 2024.
He noted:
‘Jillian Segal has criticised ceasefire calls in Gaza and defended bombing hospitals. That, and her record at NAB, makes her a poor choice for a government role.’
Segal was Commissioner then Deputy Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), 1997-2002, Chair of the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman Board, 2002-04, and Board Director at the National Australia Bank (NAB), 2004-16. Segal was awarded an AO in January 2019 for ‘distinguished service to the banking and financial regulation sectors …’.
I have long been involved in assisting and writing about victims of banking malpractice, especially small business and farmer borrowers. The financial “regulatory” apparatus, seemingly complicit, has proved comprehensively indifferent to bank malpractice against these borrowers. The NAB, following financial deregulation, has been a major player in malpractice.
During Segal’s tenure on the NAB Board, the NAB had to manage the aftermath of its hubristic imposition of a toxic facility on SME/farmer borrowers from the NAB’s Scottish subsidiary Clydesdale — fixed interest embedded swap facilities, labelled ‘Tailored Business Loans’ (here and here). The NAB was forced to pay compensation for an egregious component of the loans (‘payment protection insurance’) but remained steadfast in its denial of responsibility for the flawed facility itself, leaving many borrowers ruined.
Where was Segal in all this? She was a Member of the NAB’s Advisory Council on Corporate Responsibility. As you do. Segal might have deserved her gong for services to banking, but certainly not for services to banking regulation.
There appears to be a certain charlatanry about Segal’s involvement with the finance sector. A matter of ticking boxes? There is nothing of the charlatan regarding Segal’s full-bodied Zionism. Merely that this attribute disqualifies her from acting as a dispassionate antisemitism envoy.
Segal (with other Israel-firster Vic Alhadeff) led a delegation to the ABC in June 2021 to complain of “a pervasive culture of bias, if not antipathy, towards Israel” on the network’s Q+A program. There must be a second ABC network unknown to me.
In August 2023, the Albanese Government defended its reference to the West Bank and Gaza as “occupied” and Israeli settlements as “illegal” (in line with international law).
As published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 10 August 2023, Segal (then president of ECAJ), with the Zionist Federation’s Jeremy Leibler, claimed that:
‘…the Government’s change in language had pre-empted negotiations on a two-state solution, and criticised the move as “inaccurate, ahistorical and counterproductive.”’
Shameless.
Segal has organised, via the Trojan Horse Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, and participated many times in Australian group visits to Israel. Segal has vaunted Israel as a hotbed of determination and imagination, ideal for business innovation and “startups”. Compulsory military service, she claims, helps with building toughness and resilience. Unmentioned is that a good deal of this “innovation” is in military equipment, surveillance mechanisms and police control techniques, in the export of which Israel has become a major player.
The murder and repression of the Palestinian population (and in neighbouring countries) has become a testing ground for such specialities. Antony Loewenstein’s 2023 book ‘The Palestine Laboratory’ documents the phenomenon.
Consistently, Segal has claimed that ‘Israel’s culture of resilience and innovation, which had helped it prosper in business, would also guide its war effort’ (Australian Financial Review, 11 October 2023). It’s a package deal.
At a Sydney demonstration in solidarity ‘with Israel and the Jewish community’ as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 October 2023, Segal said:
.the actions of Hamas showed once again that its intention is to obliterate Israel and its population [erroneous], and lacked any concept of the sanctity of human life. ‘Our world has changed. The barbarians have breached the gates. The butchery and savagery that has unfolded in Israel beggars description … There can be no compromise, no accommodation of these psychopaths. They must be [crushed] and we must brace ourselves for further tragedy.’
At a Sydney vigil on 12 November 2023, Segal is reported in The Australian on 13 November as saying to a cheering crowd:
“We all yearn for peace in the Middle East, but as we all know … one cannot make peace with those who deny one’s right to exist. … There can be no ceasefire until every hostage has been released.”
Bloodlust for the imperatives of an unacknowledged apartheid state.
When Foreign Minister Penny Wong called on Israel to stop attacking hospitals, the Zionist Federation’s Jeremy Leibler and ECAJ’s Segal responded:
“The libel that any Israeli attack on Gazan hospitals from which Hamas operates would amount to war crimes only serves to demonise the state of Israel and its supporters. The government of Australia should not be lending any credibility to this false and harmful narrative.” (Australian Financial Review, 13 November 2023)……………………………………………………………………………………https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/jillian-segals-report-turns-criticism-of-israel-into-a-punishable-offence,20078
Ditch AUKUS Pillar One. It involves Australia too much in US strategy.
22 Aug 2025|Mike Keating and Jon Stanford, https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/ditch-aukus-pillar-one-it-involves-australia-too-much-in-us-strategy/
Defence Minister Richard Marles said in June that if war broke out between the US and China, Australia would inevitably be involved.
This is an unacceptable situation for any sovereign nation to be in. It exposes a dangerous inconsistency within Australia’s strategic policy, identified by former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Peter Varghese:
On the one hand, our foreign policy embraces a multipolar future where no country dominates. Our defence policy, on the other hand … is increasingly fixed around doing what we can to ensure the retention of US strategic primacy.
This focus on US primacy is the basis of the AUKUS agreement, Pillar One of which provides for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs). John Lee, of the US Studies Centre, says ‘AUKUS was forged as a joint agreement to confront and deter China’. This is consistent with the detailed agreement negotiated between the Morrison government and the Biden administration in April 2021. It reflected the administration’s strategic objective of maintaining US primacy by containing China to the first island chain, which would require sustaining the autonomy of Taiwan. Former prime minister Scott Morrison indicated in an interview in 2024 that Australia and the US were agreed on this objective.
There are four major problems with AUKUS Pillar One from Australia’s perspective.
The first is that Australia’s strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific are different from the United States’. Despite Morrison’s assertion, Australia has no essential national interest in containing China in defence of US primacy. In economic terms, China is Australia’s major partner, buying a third of our exports. As for strategic containment, while Morrison’s defence minister, Peter Dutton, said it was ‘inconceivable’ that Australia would not support the US if it ‘took action’ over Taiwan, the present government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made no such commitment.
Nevertheless, with the US’s bases in Guam, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines now threatened by China’s medium- and intermediate-range missiles, Australia has seen a major influx of US forces rotating through Australian bases. With no apparent assertion of any Australian control over how these forces may be used, this signifies a substantial change in Australia’s strategic posture.
As Michael Pezzullo said, ‘never before in peacetime has Australia been prepared to allow foreign combat forces to be able to launch military operations from Australian soil. … [The US] would have a brutally realist strategic view of Australia: it would be a key operating base for US forces in any conflict with China.’
Some experts consider that America’s large military footprint in Australia will enhance our security. This surely reflects a flawed understanding of military strategy. The strategic objective for US forces in Australia will remain the same as when they were based elsewhere: to deter an attack on Taiwan. US forces are not here to defend Australia. Indeed, their presence gives China more reason to launch strikes on this country, beyond its likely desire to eliminate some long-established joint US-Australian facilities.
As well as acting as a platform for offensive operations, an operations base across the Pacific gives the US a deep protective buffer. In a conflict, Australian bases would absorb the initial attacks but could be readily abandoned by the US should enemy forces prevail. Elbridge Colby, who is conducting the Trump administration’s review of AUKUS, may have had this in mind when he told the US Senate he was examining how ‘to conduct a local defence of Taiwan at a cost and level of risk that the American people are prepared to tolerate’.
The second problem with AUKUS is that its associated strategy of integrated deterrence requires a significant surrender of Australia’s sovereignty. In 2023, the Albanese government agreed as part of the AUKUS agreement that the RAN submarine base at HMAS Stirling, near Perth, would be expanded to provide facilities to accommodate a new allied submarine force. Australia’s SSNs will be committed to this US-led force. US National Security council member Kurt Campbell said in June 2023, ‘when submarines are provided from the United States to Australia, it’s not like they’re lost. They will just be deployed by the closest possible allied force.’
Colby, in 2024, before he became under secretary of defense for policy this year, said the delivery of US Virginia class submarines to Australia from US resources would be highly imprudent without ‘an iron-clad guarantee they can be employed at the will of the United States.’
This statement, while understandable from a US standpoint, suggests that Australia’s SSN force will not provide a sovereign capability. It will be deployed not at the discretion of the Australian government but to undertake operations under US control against China. With Royal Australian Navy SSNs integrated into ongoing operations with the US, Australia would be under great pressure not to withdraw them if the US went to war.
It is also not cost-effective to acquire a highly sophisticated defence capability at a very great price only to commit it to forward operations in defence of US primacy. The expenditure can surely only be justified for a capability dedicated to the defence of Australia.
The third problem with AUKUS is that RAN submarines would be required to undertake combined operations with the US in a great power strategy of deterrence by punishment. This would bring a grave risk to Australia’s security.
Ministers may believe that Australia’s SSN missions will be comparable to the combined intelligence gathering operations currently undertaken by our diesel submarines. But because RAN SSNs will displace US submarines, Washington will also want them to replicate US undersea missions. These are far more potent.
A primary strategic objective of US SSNs is to eliminate a great power adversary’s nuclear second-strike capability early in any war. Their operations are therefore directed towards detecting and trailing an adversary’s ballistic-missile submarines and then marking them for destruction in the event of war.
Also, wargame results suggest the US may prevail in a maritime conflict with China only by recourse to tactical nuclear weapons. By the time Australian SSNs enter service, they will be operating alongside US submarines carrying nuclear-armed missiles aimed at military targets in China.
It would be very unwise for any non-nuclear weapons power to participate in these operations. How might China respond to attacks on its ballistic-missile submarines by SSNs based in Australia or even by Australian SSNs that our government felt compelled to put at US disposal?
If the US did resort to using nuclear weapons tactically to avoid losing a war over Taiwan, China could retaliate with nuclear attacks on US facilities in Australia. This would bring a much lower risk of escalation than striking the US mainland. This is one example of how America’s security is better served by locating its first line of defence in Australia rather than at home.
The final problem with AUKUS is that Australia is procuring the wrong designs of SSN. The selection of designs for Australia’s SSNs was clearly based on US and British interests rather than our own. Britain’s SSN-AUKUS class will be much too big for the RAN. Virginias need crews as large as 145, well over twice the size of the crew of an Australian Collins-class diesel submarine. Using Virginias, with their especially high and sensitive technical dependence on the US, would not provide a sovereign capability. Both the US and British programs are also bedevilled with unacceptable risks around delivery.
So, what should the government do?
No doubt Australia’s fear of abandonment will cause some to argue that AUKUS must be preserved unchanged to avoid undermining the alliance. But our interests in the Indo-Pacific are not the same as the US’s, and, anyway, we cannot rely on any other nation, including America, for defence. In any renegotiation of AUKUS, Australia possesses substantial agency because of America’s need for secure bases.
We need urgently to reorganise our affairs to reduce the possibility of being attacked in a conflict not of our choosing. We should remove the inconsistency in Australia’s strategic posture by harmonising our defence policy with our existing foreign policy and focus on building partnerships in a multipolar Indo-Pacific. Australia should abandon integrated deterrence in the defence of US primacy. Instead, we should extend further into our strategic policy what James Curran calls the ‘Australian straddle’ between the US and China.
Our security policy should be based on the self-reliant defence of Australia by means of a strategy of denial. This would require much more powerful maritime forces and consequently a higher defence budget. With a whole continent and the third largest exclusive economic zone in the world to defend, there is a strong strategic case for Australia to acquire an SSN capability.
We should cancel our plans for Virginia and SSN-AUKUS class submarines and instead seek to acquire a sovereign, independent force of 12 French Suffren-class submarines. The Suffren design is smaller, well suited to the RAN’s operational requirements, with a crew of 65. It meets NATO standards of interoperability, allowing ongoing operations with the US. Compared to the 95-percent-enriched, weapons-grade uranium used in US and British submarines, Suffren’s fuel is enriched only to the civil standard of 5 percent. This has several advantages, not least in terms of the security challenges around transporting reactors halfway round the world to a shipyard in Adelaide.
Benefits to the US would include retention of its Virginia-class submarines within an expanded allied SSN fleet. America should also see benefit in greater Australian self-reliance with a larger defence budget. The training of Australian submariners on US SSNs should continue, to the benefit of both nations. RAN submarines should continue undertaking combined intelligence and surveillance operations at Australia’s discretion and under Australian rules of engagement.
The US could maintain its basing facilities in Australia but on similar terms to those offered by other sovereign states. Japan, South Korea and the Philippines all have legislation that requires the US to obtain host government approval before launching offensive operations from their territory. Further, their treaties with the US also include a security guarantee with extended nuclear deterrence. Finally, as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, we should not allow the storage of nuclear weapons on Australian territory.
Author
Mike Keating and Jon Stanford formerly worked together in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Mike Keating served for 11 years on the Secretaries Committee on National Security, which coordinated advice to the Cabinet Committee on National Security.
Hundreds of thousands to mobilise for Nationwide March for Palestine on Sunday 24th August
23 August 2025 AIMN Editorial, Palestine Action Group Sydney
On Sunday 24 August, hundreds of thousands of people will mobilise, in over 40 towns and cities around the country, as part of the massive Nationwide March for Palestine. As the United Nations officially declares a “man-made” famine in Gaza, and Israel launches yet another full-scale invasion, this march comes at a critical juncture.
The Nationwide March for Palestine is demanding sanctions on Israel and the end of the two-way arms trade. Australia is still exporting military components to Israel, as it carries out a genocide. This is a war crime.
Sydney details:
What: Nationwide March for Palestine
Where: Hyde Park north, marching to Belmore Park
When: Sunday 24 August. Speeches commence at 1pm, march will commence at 2pm
Who: Palestine Action Group Sydney
Speakers:
- Uncle Chris Edwards, Indigenous Elder
- Grace Tame, author and survivor advocate
- Antoinette Lattouf, independent journalist and author
- Raneem Emad, Palestinian activist
- Henry Rajendra, NSW Teachers Federation President
- Sue Higginson MLC, NSW Greens
- MCs: Amal Naser and Josh Lees from Palestine Action Group Sydney
Quotes attributable to Amal Naser, Palestine Action Group:
“The United Nations has declared a famine in Gaza. A famine deliberately caused by Israel. They are starving children, women and men to death. They are starving my family. This is genocide, and yet our Australian Government continues to send weapons to the regime carrying out this atrocity. We need everyone in the world to stand up now and stop this genocide.”
“The Australian Government continues to export military hardware directly to Israel, including for the F-35 Fighter Jets which are being used to commit daily war crimes in Gaza. We don’t need more empty words from Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong, we need sanctions on Israel and an end to the two-way arms trade now.”
Sky’s ‘War Cabinet’ manufactures panic and prophecy over proof
By Binoy Kampmark | 21 August 2025, https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/skys-war-cabinet-manufactures-panic-and-prophecy-over-proof,20069
Sky News assembling a cabinet of experts to talk about Australia’s readiness for war is a problem we should be worried about, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR NEWS networks have demonstrated that surfeit kills discretion. The search for fillers, distractions and items that will titillate, enrage or simply sedate, is an ongoing process.
Gone are the days when discerning choices were made about what constituted worthy news, an admittedly difficult problem that would always lead to priorities, rankings and judgments that might well be challenged. At the very least, news could be kept to specific time slots during the day, meaning that audiences could, at the very least, be given some form of rationing.
Such an approach culminated in that most famous of occasions on April 18, 1933 when the BBC’s news announcer declared with a minimum of fuss that, “There is no news.” This was followed by piano music playing out the rest of the segment.
On the pretext of coming across as informed and enlightened, such networks have also bought into astrology masquerading as sound comment. The commentators are intended to lend an air of respectability to something that either has not happened or something they have little idea about. Their credentials, however, are advertised like glitzy baubles, intended to arrest the intelligence of the viewing audience long enough to realise they have been had.
Sky News Australia is one such cringing example. The premise of The War Cabinet, which aired on August 11, was clear: those attending it were simply dying for greater militarism and war preparedness on the part of the Australian Government, while those preferring diplomacy would be treated like verminous denialists yearning for some sand to bury their heads in.
The point was less a matter of news than prediction and speculation, an exercise of mass bloviation. To lend a wartime flavour to proceedings, the event was staged in the Cabinet Room of Old Parliament House, which host Chris Uhlmann celebrated as the place Australia’s Prime Minister “John Curtin and his ministers steered the nation through World War II.” Former ministers, defence leaders, and national security experts were gathered “around the Cabinet table to answer a single question: is Australia ready for war?”
The stale view from Alexander Downer, Australia’s longest and, in many ways, most inconspicuous foreign minister, did little to rustle or stir. Liberal democracy, to be preserved in sacred glory, needed Australia to be linked to a “strong global alliance led by the United States”. That such an alliance might itself be the catalyst for war, notably given expectations from Washington about what Australia would do in a conflict with China, was ignored with an almost studious ignorance.
Instead, Downer saw quite the opposite:
“If this alliance holds, if it’s properly cemented, if it is well-led by the Americans… and if we, as members of the alliance, are serious about making a practical contribution to defence through our spending and our equipment, then we will maintain a balance of power in the world.”
His assessment of the current Albanese Government was one of some dottiness.
“I think the government here in Australia has made a major mistake by playing, if you like, politics with this issue of the dangers of the region and losing the balance of power because they don’t want to be seen as too close to President Trump.”
Any press briefing from Defence Minister Richard Marles regarding the anti-China AUKUS pact would ease any anxiety on Downer’s part. Under the Albanese Government, sovereignty has been surrendered to Washington in a way so remarkable it could be regarded as treasonous. While the Royal Australian Navy may never see a single U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, let alone a jointly constructed one, U.S. naval shipyards are rolling in the cash of the Australian taxpayer.
Former Labor Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, lamented that Australia’s strategic outlook in the Indo-Pacific was “deteriorating rather markedly,” a formulation utterly vague and a mere parroting of just about every other hawkish analyst that sees deterioration everywhere.
Thankfully, we had Strategic Forum CEO Ross Babbage to give some shape to it, which turned out to be that ragged motif of the Yellow Horde to the North readying to strike southwards. The Oriental Barbarians with a tinge of Communist Red were primary reasons for a worsening strategic environment, aided by their generous military expenditure. With almost a note of admiration, Babbage felt that China was readying for war by adjusting its economy and readying its people “for tough times that may come”.
The venal, ever noisy former Home Affairs Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo, who has an unhealthy appetite for warring matters, drew upon figures he could not possibly know, along with everybody else who have tried to read the inscrutable entrails of international relations.
Chances of conflict in the Indo-Pacific by 2027, for instance, was a “10 to 20 per cent” likelihood. Sky News, living down to its subterranean standards, failed to mention that Pezzullo had misused his position as one of Canberra’s most powerful bureaucrats to opine on ministerial appointments via hundreds of private text messages to Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs.
The Australian Public Service Commission found that Pezzullo had, among other things, used his “duty, power, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself” and “failed to maintain confidentiality of sensitive government information” and “failed to act apolitically in his employment”. His employment was subsequently terminated, and his Order of Australia stripped in September last year. Fine credentials for balanced commentary on the strategic outlook of a state.
Other talking heads were keen to push spine-tingling prospects of wicked regimes forming alliances and making mischief. Oleksandra Molloy, billed as an aviation expert, thought the “emerging axis” between Russia, North Korea and Iran “quite concerning”. Former naval officer and defence pundit Jennifer Parker urged the fattening of the defence budget to “develop a degree of autonomy”.
Retired Australian Army major general Mick Ryan was most unimpressed by the “zero risk” mentality that seemed to pervade “pretty much every bit of Australian society”.
The Department of Defence needed to take greater risks in terms of procurement, innovation and reducing “the amount of time it takes to develop capability”. His fantasy was positively Spartan in its military totalitarianism: an Australian state nurturing “a spirit of innovation that connects military, industry and society”. The cry for conscription must be just around the corner.
Chief war monger and think tanker Peter Jennings aired his all too familiar views on China, which have become pathological.
“It is utterly false for our government to say that somehow they have stabilised the relationship with China. Things may have improved on the trade front, but that is at the expense of ignoring the strategic developments which all of our colleagues around the table have spoken about, which is China is positioning for war.”
And there you had it: an hour of furious fretting and wailing anxiety with all figures in furious agreement, with a resounding boo to diplomacy and a hurrah for astrology.
Dr Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University
24 August Nationwide March for Palestine set to mobilise largest numbers in Australia’s history
19 August 2025 AIMN Editorial, https://theaimn.net/nationwide-march-for-palestine-set-to-mobilise-largest-numbers-in-australias-history/
August 24. 21 Cities and towns across Australia
(Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Hobart, Canberra, Newcastle, Central Coast, Katoomba, Port Macquarie, Tathra, Bathurst, Pine Gap, Geraldton, Townsville, Cairns, Warrnambool, Canberra, Coff’s Harbour)
Slogans:
- Recognition is a distraction: Sanction Israel Now
- End the two way arms trade with Israel
Key Information:
- The largest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Australia’s history are planned for this Sunday, as a broad national coalition combining every major Palestine organising group nationally unites for a country-wide day of action.
- The march is backed by key union federations including Victorian Trades Hall Council, Unions NSW, Hunter Workers, Unions WA, and South Coast Labour Council. This is the first time union federations have backed Palestine action in any coordinated way.
- The scale of participation, with demonstrations currently planned for 21 locations across the country, suggests widespread support for the Palestinian people among the Australian public. As a result, Sunday will see protests in every capital city, as well as places as diverse as Geraldton, Coffs Harbour, and Pine Gap. Some will be hosting their first ever protests for Palestine. Full list of marches below.
The Albanese government has sought to respond to this growing public pressure to stop Israel’s siege and assault on Gaza by raising the question of symbolic recognition. Yet spokespeople for the pro-Palestine movement, which is the largest ongoing anti-war movement for generations, have made it clear that that they insist on action to try to end the ongoing genocide, not meaningless words.
Quotes:
Palestinian organiser Mai Saif explained the intention of the march:
“So many people are disgusted at the scenes of men, women and children being deliberately starved and bombed to death by Israel. We will be taking to the streets in enormous numbers, in at least 21 cities and towns across the country.”
National organiser Jasmine Duff said:
“We call on those with any ounce of humanity to march on August 24 in every pocket of Australia, from the capital cities to our most isolated towns. History must record that when our government armed a world-historic genocide, Australia said not in our name. We will not condone a single weapons component or scrap of steel provided by our government to arm Israel as it slaughters and starves the people of Gaza.”
National organiser Josh Lees said:
“Albanese has attempted to buy off the Palestine movement by recognising the same state his government is helping to destroy. We made history when we marched on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and we will make history this Sunday by flooding the country with marches for Palestine. If you’ve watched in horror as mass starvation grips Gaza, and as our government continues to arm Israel, this is the moment to join the movement in the streets.”
Billions in Israel defence contracts put Australia at risk.
by Stephanie Tran | Aug 17, 2025, https://michaelwest.com.au/billions-in-israel-defence-contracts-put-australia-at-risk/
The Australian Government risks breaking international law, splashing billions in public money on Israel weapons deals. A Stephanie Tran analysis.
The Australian government has funnelled $2.5 billion of taxpayer funds to Israeli arms manufacturers over the past two decades via government contracts.
An analysis of Austender data shows that since 2004, the Australian government has signed dozens of deals with Israel’s largest defence companies, making them some of the country’s most significant foreign suppliers of arms.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The true sum is certainly much higher, as the government is not required to disclose subcontracting arrangements, such as the $900 million deal between Elbit Systems and South Korean firm Hanwha to supply the Australian Army with armoured vehicles.
The breakdown of the funds is as follows:
- $1.92 billion to Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries Elistra Electronic System Ltd, Universal Avionics Systems, Geospectrum Technologies and Ferranti Technologies
- $307 million to Israel Aerospace Industries and its subsidiaries, Elta Systems and Elta Electronics industry
- $180 million to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, its subsidiary Pearson Engineering and a joint venture with Australian company Varley Group, “Varley Rafael”
- $10 million to Israel Military Industries, also known as IMI Systems. (Note: IMI Systems was acquired by Elbit Systems in 2018)
- $870,000 to Plassan
- $210,00 to Rada Electronic Industries
Breaking international law
Lara Khider, Senior Lawyer at the Australian Centre for International Justice, said the contracts place Australia at risk of breaching its international legal obligations.
“States have been put on notice that Israel may be committing internationally wrongful acts in relation to its military and other operations in Gaza and through its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory,” Khider said, citing multiple International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings in the South Africa v Israel genocide case and its advisory opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
“On this basis, States have an obligation to cease aid and assistance to Israel in relation to the commission of these acts. Otherwise, States may be deemed complicit in internationally wrongful conduct.”
She said the ICJ was unequivocal that all states must avoid trade or economic dealings that entrench Israel’s unlawful presence in occupied Palestinian territory and refrain from aiding or assisting its maintenance. Under the Arms Trade Treaty, to which Australia is a signatory, governments are required to block weapons transfers if there is an overriding risk they would be used to commit serious violations of the Geneva Conventions.
The Australian Centre for International Justice has called for a two-way arms embargo “as a bare minimum” to ensure Australia does not contribute directly or indirectly to violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Department of Defence did not respond – does it ever?
The Department of Defence did not respond to a request for comment regarding whether it would cancel its existing contracts and refrain from entering into new contracts for the procurement of arms from Israeli defence companies in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Greg Barns SC, a spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said continuing the contracts undermines Australia’s moral and legal credibility.
“Australia has an obligation to comply with all of the international agreements, treaties and covenants to which it is a signatory. That any Australian government would allow the supply of defence equipment to a country committing war crimes and genocide is morally reprehensible and a clear breach of international law,” Barns said. “This reduces Australia’s standing globally in terms of adherence to the rule of law.”
Non-corporate nuclear news – too long this week-sorry
Some bits of good news – How Australia Enlisted the Whole Country to Protect Its Biodiversity.
Lessons for a Warming World From Kashmir’s Cooling Caves. Offshore wind farms act as ‘de facto marine reserves’. Weaving a story of hope with nature recovery
TOP STORIES.
Democrats bashing Trump, Putin summit ensuring continued destruction of Ukraine. It’s not ‘Who lost Ukraine?’ It’s ‘Who destroyed Ukraine?
Does Trump have the guts to end America’s lost proxy war against Russia?
Stopping The Gaza Holocaust Is The First Step Toward A Healthy World.
From the archives. Conveniently forgotten and ignored – the 8 years war in Ukraine up to 2022. Setting the record straight on the background to events in Ukraine. The West initiated the Ukraine crisis, and will have to work to fix it.
Climate. Temperature records broken as extreme heat grips parts of Europe. Hellish’: heatwave brings hottest nights on record to the Middle East.
AUSTRALIA. Australia’s F-35 exports a “facilitation of war crimes”: US expert.
‘Disarm now’: Anti-nuke advocate’s message to world leaders at Pine Gap protest.
New report on British nuclear submarines should raise alarm bells across Australia. The nuclear-powered submarine crisis.
Government-funded nuclear is fine for Dan Tehan, but not renewables or climate initiatives.
NUCLEAR ITEMS
| ATROCITIES. Over 100 Children Have Died of Severe Hunger Amid Israeli Siege: Gaza Health Ministry. Israel’s govt issues ‘death sentence’ to remaining captives.Palestinians Displaced in West Bank by Israeli Settlers Ask: Where Can We Go? |
| CLIMATE. Heat Waves Are a Growing Threat to Europe’s Nuclear Power Supply. |
| CIVIL LIBERTIES. Pentagon to Create ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force’. |
| ECONOMICS. Nuclear developers turn to Special Purpose Acquisition Companies – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAJTkL99anI&t=22s Rolls-Royce making fortune from ‘untested new nuclear market’.The cost of the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent. Nuclear legacy costs far outweigh Germany’s environmental protection investments.. |
| ENERGY. Equinix enters into multiple advanced nuclear deals to power data centers– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/16/1-b1-equinix-enters-into-multiple-advanced-nuclear-deals-to-power-data-centers/ |
| ENVIRONMENT. Swarm of jellyfish shuts nuclear power plant in France. A Mob of Alien Creatures Just Took 4 Nuclear Reactors Completely Offline. Government faces calls to investigate Faslane nuclear leak. Radioactive water ‘leaked into’ loch from Faslane nuclear base. Rachel Reeves to cut ‘bats and newts’ in boost to developers- ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/18/1-b1-rachel-reeves-to-cut-bats-and-newts-in-boost-to-developers/ |
| ETHICS and RELIGION. Vonnegut on Nagasaki: “The most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery” |
| EVENTS. PETITION: Urgent: Insist Cumberland Council Fulfill Their Nuclear Democratic Duty |
| HEALTH. Nuclear wasps fallout explodes as worker from bomb factory blows the lid on the true threat of the crisis… while battling FIVE cancers. |
| LEGAL. Netanyahu’s Plan To Occupy Gaza Violates World Court Ruling That Israeli Occupation is Illegal. TASC’s new legal challenge against Sizewell C’s secret flood defences. Judicial review sought at High Court into flood barriers. Quebec engineering body finds former SNC-Lavalin CEO guilty on multiple counts of misconduct. |
| MEDIA. Israel Assassinates More Journalists To Hide Its Planned War Crimes. Slaying and Censoring the Journalists: The Murder of Anas al-Sharif. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6w0NF5Htbs Cowardly Israeli Murder of 5 Journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, Smearing them as Hamas. |
| OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . Hundreds rally in Taipei against restart of No. 3 nuclear power plant. |
| PERSONAL STORIES. Anas Al-Sharif’s Final Message.My years reporting on Gaza broke me down- Why did it take so long for the world to become outraged? |
| POLITICS. Smotrich Announces Major West Bank Settlement Expansion To ‘Bury the Idea of a Palestinian State’. Coulport nuclear leaks spark alarm among local nuclear campaigners -ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/16/1-b1-coulport-nuclear-leaks-spark-alarm-among-local-nuclear-campaigners/ Scottish independence can rid us of nuclear abomination. Switzerland moves to lift ban on new nuclear power plants – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/17/2-b1-switzerland-moves-to-lift-ban-on-new-nuclear-power-plants/ Taiwan set to hold referendum on restarting last nuclear reactor. |
| POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY . Breaking the Ice in Alaska: Why Diplomacy Still Matters. Review of the Alaska meeting – The goal is always domination. Trump on Summit with Putin: We Made Great Progress Today. Trump meets with Putin: the non-event that was sold as history. No ceasefire, no deal: What summit means for Trump, Putin and Ukraine. The Alaskan Summit: Possible Agenda and Outcomes.War’s final act: Zelensky’s dangerous play to crash Russia-US talks. Zelensky Rejects Idea of Ceding Territory to Russia as Trump and Putin Prepare for Alaska Summit. EU’s Kallas urges ‘pressure on Russia’ ahead of Putin-Trump talks . The West is in panic as Israel’s plan for ‘full control’ of Gaza heralds a new Nakba. Tehran faults UN nuclear watchdog over response to Israeli, US attacks. Iran’s nuclear chief urges IAEA to condemn Israeli terrorism. |
| SAFETY.UN nuclear watchdog official to visit Iran in a bid to improve ties but no inspections planned. Incident. Serious nuclear incident’ took place at Scottish Navy base – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/17/2-b1-serious-nuclear-incident-took-place-at-scottish-navy-base/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD2b-rM-aeQ Dumbing down: UK Taskforce charged with pushing nuclear deregulation . UK Labour eye ‘utterly reckless’ bonfire of nuclear energy regulations. Nuclear Reactor Faces 18 Hours Without Cooling as “Pipes Burst Like Burning Arteries” Following Technician’s Mistake in Shocking Safety Breakdown. |
| SECRETS and LIES. Declassified: CIA’s Covert Ukraine Invasion Plan.Israel Is Beginning To Choke On Its Own Lies. A Shield of Lies: Netanyahu’s Battle Against the World. ‘A million calls an hour’: Israel using Microsoft cloud for mass surveillance of Palestine. Ministry of Defence urged to publish full details of Faslane incident– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/18/1-b1-ministry-of-defence-urged-to-publish-full-details-of-faslane-incident/ |
| SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Reckon you can put a nuclear reactor on the Moon? |
| SPINBUSTER. Trump Declares Victory After Putin Summit: The Spin Begins. |
| URANIUM. Russian uranium being used at Sizewell B site in Suffolk. |
| WASTES. Geological disposal facility for nuclear waste could cost £54bn and ‘appears unachievable’. Unproven and costly: Nuclear Waste Dump ‘Red’ Rated as Unachievable. |
| WAR and CONFLICT. Russia says it prevented a Ukrainian drone attack on the Smolensk nuclear power plant – ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/18/1-b1-russia-federal-says-it-prevented-a-ukrainian-drone-attack-on-the-smolensk-nuclear-power-plant/Russia makes battlefield breakthrough in urgent push for land.Kaliningrad Gambit: NATO’s Last Desperate Bluff /Spark for World War III? |
| WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES. Germany’s Merz to Israel’s Netanyahu: ‘No more genocide weapons for you.’ In major shift, Germany ends arms exports to Israel amid Netanyahu’s Gaza takeover plan. US flies nuclear bombs to Britain. Don’t believe the hype about nuclear weapons. The ‘third nuclear age’ is a politically motivated label that seeks to justify a renewed arms race. |
The nuclear-powered submarine crisis
Tim Deere-Jones , 11th August 2025
The full Report “The British experience with nuclear-powered submarines: lessons for Australia” has been written for Friends of the Earth Australia by British scientist Tim Deere-Jones here.
Dr. Jim Green, national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia, said:
“The report reveals disturbing patterns of unacceptable safety risks, an appalling lack of transparency, cost-blowouts and delays.
“None of the issues raised in Tim Deere-Jones’ report have been adequately addressed in the Australian context. Indeed a federal EPBC Act assessment absurdly precluded nuclear accident impact assessments as ‘out of scope’. If those vital issues are addressed at all, it will be by a new, non-independent military regulator ‒ a blatant, deliberate breach of the fundamental principle of regulatory independence.
“The Australian government must immediately initiate a thorough, independent review of the AUKUS submarine project and this report should be an important input into that inquiry.”
The Report author Mr. Deere-Jones said:
“The British experience with nuclear submarines reveals a litany of safety risks, cost blowouts and delays. It can confidently be predicted that these problems will beset the AUKUS submarine programme.”
“Operational risks include radiological pollution of marine and coastal environments and wildlife; risks of radioactivity doses to coastal populations; and the serious risk of dangerous collisions between civilian vessels and nuclear submarines, especially in the approaches to busy naval and civilian sea ways and fishing grounds.
“Ominously, the problems seem to be worsening.”
Australia’s F-35 exports a “facilitation of war crimes”: US expert.
Following Sydney’s huge protest against Israel’s killing and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, the federal government has doubled down on its misinformation about Australia’s arms exports to Israel
Undue Influence, Michelle Fahy and Elizabeth Minter, Aug 17, 2025
The Labor government’s word games continue as it tries to persuade an increasingly sceptical public that Australia’s hands are clean when it comes to complicity in Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
An expert on US arms exports has given short shrift to the Albanese government’s misleading mantras, telling ABC radio last weekend that Australia was facilitating war crimes by exporting F-35 parts and components to Israel.
When asked how he would describe the Australian military’s recent direct supply of F-35 parts to Israel, former US State Department official Joshua Paul said: “It’s directly a facilitation of war crimes. There’s no question about it, to my mind.”
Mr Paul made international headlines in 2023 as the first US official to resign publicly in protest over the Biden administration’s policy of expediting weaponry to Israel for its current war on Gaza, stating that America knew the weapons were to be used to commit human rights violations. Mr Paul was director of congressional and public affairs at the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, a US State Department agency that works closely with the Pentagon on weapons transfers.
Defence Minister Marles squirms under scrutiny
Also last weekend, on ABC TV’s Insiders, Defence Minister Richard Marles criticised what he labelled “misinformation” about Australia’s arms exports to Israel. Yet he refused to answer basic questions on the topic, resorting repeatedly to the government’s discredited mantra that Australia is not supplying weapons to Israel.
Mr Marles also passed the buck for his role in personally approving Australia’s continued export of F-35 parts and components, deflecting responsibility for the F-35 global supply chain onto prime manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.
Without providing any justification, Mr Marles claimed that Australia’s F-35 exports presented a “very different question” and were a “separate issue” from other arms exports.
Australia’s F-35 exports cannot be separated out from the overarching question of Australia’s arms exports to Israel during its genocidal war on Gaza.
The Defence Department has stated that more than 75 Australian companies have contributed to the F-35 global supply chain, which has been working overtime – at “breakneck speed” – for almost two years to increase spare part supply rates to ensure Israel’s F-35s remain operational.
In her June report, From economy of occupation to economy of genocide, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, named Lockheed Martin and the members of its F-35 supply chain as enhancing Israel’s ability to sustain its genocide of Palestinian people.
Mr Marles’ claims are also at odds with a significant UN statement last year: ‘States and companies must end arms transfers to Israel immediately or risk responsibility for human rights violations’, which named 11 multinationals, including Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. These companies, by sending weapons, parts, components, and ammunition to Israeli forces, risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws, the statement said.
UK-based BAE Systems is one of Lockheed Martin’s three major partners in the F-35 supply chain. Its Australian subsidiary is also involved in supplying parts and components.
Australia’s export of F-35 parts and components into the supply chain is essential to the assembly of new aircraft and the maintenance and operation of the global fleet, including Israel’s F-35s.
Australia is the sole global source of some F-35 parts and components including, for example, the high-tech mechanism that opens and closes the weapons bay doors, enabling Israel to drop bombs on Gaza.
Despite this, foreign minister Penny Wong repeated in the Senate last month the ludicrous assertion she and Richard Marles first aired last year that the Australian-made parts and components in the world’s most lethal fighter jet are “non-lethal”. (Watch SBS News clip.)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Could Australia make a difference?
Undue Influence last year reported comments by the head of the US-based F-35 joint program office, Lieutenant General Michael Schmidt, that the just-in-time F-35 global supply situation was “too risky”.
Despite claims from Mr Marles and Ms Wong that Australia has no power to make any impact on Israel’s military activities in Gaza, Josh Paul’s insights reinforce the fact that Australia could make a difference, should it have the courage to do so.
Australia could announce it will cease its export of F-35 parts and components unless or until the other member nations of the F-35 consortium agree to cease exporting to Israel. https://undueinfluence.substack.com/p/australias-f-35-exports-a-facilitation?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=297295&post_id=171175147&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Calls for Transparency Over Serious Nuclear Incident at Faslane
By Chris Martin, 14 Aug 2025, https://argyllbute24.co.uk/calls-for-transparency-over-serious-nuclear-incident-at-faslane/
THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) is facing calls to disclose details of a serious nuclear incident at HMNB Clyde, Faslane, between 1 January and 22 April this year.
Classified as Category A – the MoD’s most serious level – the event reportedly posed no risk to the public or environment.
Faslane, on Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute, houses the UK’s nuclear submarines, including Vanguard-class vessels armed with Trident missiles.
In a parliamentary response to SNP MP Dave Doogan, defence minister Maria Eagle confirmed multiple incidents at Faslane and nearby RNAD Coulport, but refused to detail Category A or B events, citing national security concerns.
Renewed alarm follows a Guardian/Ferret investigation revealing radioactive water leaked into Loch Long from Coulport in 2019 due to faulty pipes, with a six-year secrecy battle over the case. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency deemed the discharges “of no regulatory concern”.
SNP deputy leader Keith Brown has demanded an “urgent explanation”, warning nuclear weapons are “poorly maintained” and threaten safety, communities, and the environment.
The MoD insists it handles radioactive substances “safely and securely” and that none of the incidents caused harm or radiological impact, reaffirming support for the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
More on this story in next week’s Observer
Government-funded nuclear is fine for Dan Tehan, but not renewables or climate initiatives
Rachel Williamson, ReNeweconomy, Aug 14, 2025
From the party that promised seven taxpayer funded nuclear reactors, now comes a call to enforce pure free-market economics on all things renewable and climate related, at least according to new shadow energy minister Dan Tehan.
Tehan’s speech to the Carbon Market Institute’s emissions summit in Melbourne on Thursday was a pitch for renewable energy and climate initiatives to be turned over to competitive markets.
But mentions of the Coalition’s former plans for state-funded nuclear power plants, or the removal of the $14.5 billion in annual fossil fuel subsidies were conspicuously absent.
And while Tehan was keen to adopt Ross Garnaut’s contention that Australia will struggle to achieve its 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030, he did not also reference in his markets-led speech Garnaut’s contention that oligopolistic gas participants are using their market power to drive up prices.
Playing to his role as a free market champion, Tehan opened his talk with a gentle neg at the audience about why he thinks the entire premise of the conference founder is wrong.
“I called it the so-called carbon market, for a reason,” he told the crowd, saying markets are defined by transparency.
“Australians deserve clarity about costs, trade-offs and pathways in our energy transition. At the moment, this has been hidden, and we need to know why.”
In a speech that repeatedly referenced the cost blowout of the VNI West transmission line, called for CSIRO to “release its code, data and assumptions in full” for the GenCost report, and demanded to know how much the beneficiaries of electric vehicle incentives are earning, Tehan’s pitch was that governments are too involved in the economy-wide changes currently underway to reduce emissions. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Currently, the Coalition still can’t agree on what kind of energy they’d like in Australia.
Two weeks ago, Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan from the Nationals were again calling for more coal fired power stations to be built, and last week Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie came out against a too-quick transition from fossil fuels,
Energy is one of the five issues Liberal leader Sussan Ley has put up for negotiation.
Tehan listed eight different areas where the federal government should bring in more market-based measures rather than an approach marked by “ideology, energy constraint and emissions reduction through a high cost de-industrialisation”……………………………………………https://reneweconomy.com.au/government-funded-nuclear-is-fine-for-dan-tehan-but-not-renewables-or-climate-initiatives/
It’s not ‘Who lost Ukraine?’ It’s ‘Who destroyed Ukraine?
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 15 Aug 25
When Mao won the Chinese civil war in 1949, adding China to the USSR in the roster of commie countries, the US war hawks of that era excoriated the Truman administration for ‘losing’ China’. Their unhinged claim was that the commie filled State Department made Mao’s inevitable takeover possible. That helped fuel Sen. Joe McCarthy’s equally unhinged campaign to smoke out all those imagined commies in the Truman administration a year later.
A whiff of that 1949 anti commie hysteria is playing out on mainstream media ahead of Friday’s sit down between President Trump and Russian President Putin seeking a ceasefire and end to this disastrous war destroying Ukraine.
Morning Joe Scarborough this morning pondered whether Trump will cave to evil Putin’s Ukraine dismembership demands to achieve the peace that might garner him a Nobel Peace Prize. Yep, Moring Joe laid out the ‘Who lost Ukraine’ meme on Trump to prepare us for the onslaught of anti-Trump, anti-Russian hysteria sure to follow if a settlement reflecting the reality of Ukraine’s dismembership is inked in Alaska tomorrow.
A settlement is only possible if a US/Russia settlement verifies the battlefield reality. Ukraine’s military is teetering on collapse with over a million dead cannon fodder and 4 oblasts gone to Russia forever. If Trump accomplishes peace…which is far from likely, the blame game will focus on Trump who ‘lost’ Ukraine which will end up as a greatly diminished rump state dependent on US/European life support for years to come.
Historians instead should begin with the 6 administrations preceding Trump’s second term 2.0: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump 1.0 and most grievously Joe Biden. H.W. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama, Trump 1.0 and Biden all promoted NATO expansion into Ukraine and dismissed all Russian security pleas that such expansion was a Red Line Russia would view as an existential threat.
While his predecessors put Ukraine on the road to destruction, Joe Biden essentially pulled the trigger on a war Ukraine had no chance of winning. Putin tried to avoid invading. He saw Ukraine massing 60,000 elite troops on the Donbas border to polish off the Ukrainian separatists there seeking independence and safety from Kyiv neo fascists. His plea of December 21 2021 was dismissed out of hand. Biden told Putin that Russia’s security interests, which included autonomy for Ukrainian separatists as well as a neutral Ukraine not in NATO, were ‘not subject to discussion whatsoever.’
Biden knew that response would provoke a Russian invasion. But Biden miscalculated that US weapons combined with draconian Russian sanctions would result in a Vietnam style defeat for Russia, possibly even the overthrow of President Putin.
So here we are three years, eight months later with Putin, not Trump holding all the cards in tomorrow’s negotiation. Trump knows the correct outcome is settling on Russia’s terms: no return of Ukraine territory, no NATO for Ukraine and a demilitarized Ukraine that can never attack inside Russia territory again. He also knows he’ll be branded by America’s ravenous war hawks as ‘The man who lost Ukraine’ should he end the war.
Nobody lost Ukraine. But we now know who destroyed Ukraine. The only question to be answered is…How severely Ukraine will be destroyed before the guns go silent.
Serious nuclear incident’ took place at Scottish Navy base.
14 Aug 25, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/14/serious-nuclear-incident-clyde-faslane-navy-base/
MoD admits ‘Category A’ event at HMNB Clyde which will raise concerns about maintenance of Trident nuclear submarines
‘Potentially serious’ event at HMNB Clyde prompts concerns about maintenance of Trident submarines
Category A events are defined as those which carry “actual or high potential for radioactive release to the environment”.
The revelation will raise serious concerns about how the Trident nuclear submarines in Scotland are being maintained. It is also likely to prompt questions over transparency and why the incident was not known about until now.
HMNB Clyde houses every Royal Navy submarine, including the Vanguard-class vessels which are armed with Trident missiles.
On Wednesday afternoon, the SNP demanded an urgent explanation from the Labour Government in Westminster over a “catalogue of failures” including separate contamination nearby.
The MoD declined to offer specific details of the incident, which was first reported by the Helensburgh Advertiser. This means it was unclear if any radiation was leaked into the environment or if there was a risk of this taking place.
The incident is not the first category A incident to take place at Faslane, with the MoD having reported two such cases from 2006 to 2007 and a third that took place in 2023.
The incident was disclosed in a written parliamentary answer by Maria Eagle, the procurement minister, after she was asked to provide the number of Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at the Coulport and Faslane naval bases.
She said there had been one category A event at Faslane between Jan 1 and April 22, two category B, seven category C and four category D. A further five events were deemed to be “below scale”, meaning they were less serious.
Nearby Coulport, where the UK’s nuclear missiles and warheads are stored, had four category C and nine category D events over the same period.
Ms Eagle told Dave Doogan, the SNP MP who tabled the question: “I cannot provide specific detail for the events as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of any relevant forces.
“I can assure the honourable member that none of the events listed in question 49938 caused harm to the health of any member of staff or to any member of the public and none have resulted in any radiological impact to the environment.”
She also said that NSERs “are raised to foster a robust safety culture that learns from experience, whether that is equipment failures, human error, procedural failings, documentation shortcoming or near-misses”.
Category B incidents are defined as having “actual or high potential for a contained release within [a] building or submarine or unplanned exposure to radiation”.
Category C incidents have “moderate potential for future release”, while category D incidents are unlikely to prompt any release but “may contribute towards an adverse trend”.
Radioactive water leak
It emerged last week that radioactive water from the Coulport and Faslane bases, which are situated near Glasgow, was allowed to leak into the sea after several old pipes burst.
The substance was released into Loch Long because the Royal Navy inadequately maintained a network of around 1,500 pipes on the base, a regulator found.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the pollution watchdog north of the border, found up to half the components at the base were beyond their design life.
David Cullen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Basic defence think tank, said attempts to hide previous serious incidents from the public had been “outrageous”.
Mr Cullen said: “The MoD is almost 10 years into a nearly £2bn infrastructure programme at Faslane and Coulport, and yet they apparently didn’t have a proper asset management system as recently as 2022.
“This negligent approach is far too common in the nuclear weapons programme, and is a direct consequence of a lack of oversight.”
Government accused of ‘cover-up’
Keith Brown, the deputy leader of the SNP, accused the Government of a cover-up in relation to the incident at Faslane.
Mr Brown said: “Nuclear weapons are an ever-present danger and this new information is deeply worrying.
“With repeated reports of serious incidents at Faslane and now confirmed radioactive contamination in Loch Long, it’s clear these weapons are not only poorly maintained but are a direct threat to our environment, our communities, and our safety.
“Worse still, the Labour Government is refusing to provide any details about the category A incident, or the full extent of the contamination, including who could potentially be affected.”
The SNP has vowed to scrap Trident, despite consensus in Westminster and among defence experts that the world is now more dangerous than at any point since the Cold War.
The accusations over a cover-up come after The Telegraph disclosed last month that Britain had secretly offered asylum to almost 24,000 Afghan soldiers and their families.
The Government earmarked £7bn to relocate Afghans to the UK over five years after they were caught up in the most serious data breach in history.
Despite enormous costs to the taxpayer, the breach was kept secret from the public for 683 days by two successive governments after the first use of a super-injunction by ministers.
An MoD spokesman said: “We place the upmost importance on handling radioactive substances safely and securely. Nuclear Site Event Reports demonstrate our robust safety culture and commitment to learn from experience.
“The incidents posed no risk to the public and did not result in any radiological impact to the environment. It is factually incorrect to suggest otherwise. Our Government backs our nuclear deterrent as the ultimate guarantor of our national security.
The MoD said it was unable to disclose details of individual incidents for “national security reasons”. However, it is understood all the NSERs were categorised as having a “low safety significance”.
Not the corporate nuclear news -this week
Some bits of good news – Superpowers united on a shared green energy vision. Japanese ‘Rental Grandmother’ Service Provides Much-Needed and Much-Loved Purpose for Older WomenUK’s Rarest Breeding Birds Raise Chicks for First Time in Six Years
TOP STORIES.
Remembering Hiroshima 80 years on – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgU-Vc958-k
Jeremy Corbyn: Nuclear Disarmament Now.
Why no Hollywood movie on Nagasaki A Bombing?
As Netanyahu moves toward full takeover of Gaza, Israel faces a crisis of international credibility.
Trump’s Suicidal Nuclear Brinksmanship.The new space race: How the US, China, and Russia are all vying to be the first to build a nuclear reactor on the MOON.
Environment and health. The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics.
AUSTRALIA. Australia to chart its own course on Palestinian statehood, without Trump’s say-so.
Dare To Hope. Julian Assange Joins Historic Anti-Genocide March Across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge.
The lethal legacy of Aukus nuclear submarines will remain for millennia – and there’s no plan to deal with it. The AUKUS Submarine Deal is Dead. AUKUS delusions– More rivets pop in submarine drama.
Those left behind: The long shadow of Britain’s nuclear testing in Western Australia.
NUCLEAR ITEMS.
| ARTS and CULTURE. Patrick Lawrence: Yes, It’s a Genocide. |
| ATROCITIES. The Genocidal Partnership of Israel and the United States.1,500 Killed While Seeking Aid in Gaza Since May: UN. |
| CLIMATE. Europe’s electricity system tested by heatwaves as air-conditioning use soars – nuclear power plants affected- ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2025/08/07/2-a-europes-electricity-system-tested-by-heatwaves-as-air-conditioning-use-soars-nuclear-power-plants-affected/ |
ECONOMICS. EDF shifts nuclear strategy to domestic projects.
How industry is positioning itself for the giant Golden Dome budget.
EMPLOYMENT. Miliband’s Nuclear Quango Chief In Line for £200,000 for Working Three Days a Week. Sellafield nuclear plant contractors to strike. Sizewell C to give jobs to hundreds of ex-offenders.
ETHICS and RELIGION. The Satanic Nature of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Christian Zionist View of Foreign Policy Is Holy War. Chris Hedges: The Gaza Riviera.
To Future Generations: They Knew-They All Knew What Was Happening In Gaza.
| HEALTH. The Bombs Still Ticking.“Memories that do not heal”: the legacy of uranium mining at Laguna Pueblo. |
| HISTORY. Hiroshima’s fading legacy: the race to secure survivors’ memories amid a new era of nuclear brinkmanship.SEEDS OF PEACE -AUGUST 2025.Atomic testament: Yoshito Matsushige and the first photos of Hiroshima’s nuclear toll. |
| MEDIA. When the Press Becomes the Enemy: The Erosion of Media Independence in Trump’s America. YouTube bans prominent Zelensky critic. |
| OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . No Nukes for Power, Posturing or Destruction. |
POLITICS. Weekly Briefing: A tipping point for Israel’s legitimacy.
POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. Nuclear Roulette.
80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki — time for a nuclear-free world for a peaceful, sustainable future.
Zelensky and the EU increasingly desperate over the inevitable outcome of the conflict.
As the world hurtles ever closer to nuclear oblivion, where is the opposition?
| SAFETY. Trump’s Nuclear Energy Overhaul Sparks Alarms Over Safety.Fire safety improvements required at Dungeness A. |
| SECRETS and LIES. Ukraine hacks Russian submarine as Moscow expands Arctic presence.Microsoft helping Israel spy on millions of Palestinians since 2021: Report. |
| SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS.Who’s Protecting the Moon? We may not survive a nuclear war but some plan to carry on. Nasa to put nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 – US media. A NASA Nuclear Reactor On The Moon? Bold Proposal Is Unfeasible By 2030– Here’s Why. From boots to orbits: Army develops space skills amid growing battlefield reliance on satellites. |
| SPINBUSTER. 80 Years of Lies: The US Finally Admits It Knew It Didn’t Need to Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. |
| TECHNOLOGY. A Second CANDU Reactor for Point Lepreau? Let’s Ponder. |
| WASTES. Tepco wraps up latest round of treated water release in Fukushima. |
WAR and CONFLICT.
Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war. Israel Preparing To Escalate Military Offensive in Gaza. Occupation and Slaughter: Netanyahu and Taking Over Gaza.
Trump and Zelensky, two cornered rats with no way out of Ukraine catastrophe.
Threat of Nuclear War Is Rising, But Scientists Say the Public Can Change That.
WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.
No more Hiroshimas. Hiroshima anniversary: mayor says Ukraine and Middle East crises show world ignoring nuclear ‘tragedies.
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Expands Nuclear Bomb Production, Rejects Cleanup, Still Plans to Release Tritium.
$10 billion, 10 year US Army contract elevates Palantir to defense contracting royalty.
Pete Hegseth Doesn’t Want to Talk About Golden Dome
‘Disarm now’: Anti-nuke advocate’s message to world leaders at Pine Gap protest.
Following the breakdown of a nuclear treaty, an antinuclear advocate wants world leaders to hear a message she’s made from the doors of a top secret Territory spy base.
12 Aug 25,https://www.ntnews.com.au/journalists/gera-kazakov
An antinuclear ambassador for a Nobel prize winning group has delivered a message to world leaders at the edge of a Red Centre spy base, days after Russia pulled out of an arms treaty following an American missile test in the Top End.
ICAN ambassador Karina Lester was one of a dozen demonstrators who gathered at the edge of the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility restricted area on Sunday, where she told world leaders to “disarm now” when speaking with this masthead.
“Get rid of your weapons. Lets fund and focus on world peace, not arm up and test missiles,” she said.
Ms Lester’s visit to the border of the Pine Gap restricted zone on Hatt Rd comes a day after she gave a speech at the sixth Yami Lester memorial event in Alice Springs – an event named after her father.
Mr Lester, a Yankunytjatjara elder who died in 2017, was blinded by the British nuclear tests in northern South Australia in the 1950s.
He was blinded as a child, and spent his life advocating against nuclear weapons – a mantle his daughter has taken up with ICAN, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for their antinuclear advocacy.
The group got to the edge of the Pine Gap restricted at about 4.30pm Sunday, where they were again met with a police blockade at where the restricted zone begins.
Two unmarked Toyota LandCruisers followed the convoy to their meeting place, and a police drone was also observed overhead.
The group heard from speakers who opposed the US-run base, with members of the crowd holding signs reading “Yankee go home” while others held Palestinian flags.
At the conclusion of the demonstration, the group gathered for a photo and chanted “land back, close Pine Gap” while various media outlets filmed and photographed them.
Federal NSW Greens senator David Shoebridge was also billed to be at the Pine Gap demonstration on Sunday, but pulled out due to covid, this masthead understands.
The Greens defence and foreign affairs spokesman said the political party has opposed the US-run base “for decades” but did not comment on why he was unable to come on Sunday when asked by this masthead.
1 This month
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