Hundreds joined a protest on April 11 against the federal Labor government-supported transition from coal to becoming a weapons industry hub in the Hunter region.
Rising Tide and Demilitarise Newcastle, the protest organisers, said it is not a plan for jobs or the local economy but a “business plan for weapons dealers”.
Labor has donated land to weapons manufacturers at the Williamtown Aerospace Centre and is subsidising the construction of the Kongsberg Missile Factory.
Rising Tide spokesperson Renee Thomas said the movement was demanding “a different future for the Hunter” where coal miners are “supported through retraining and job creation”.
“Where we invest in renewable energy, healthcare, mine rehabilitation and housing to ensure there are secure jobs that support our community for generations to come,” Thomas said.
NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge said the region’s coal workers need a transition to sustainable and productive industries, not the arms manufacturing industries fueling genocide in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.
“We can look around and see the world spinning off into war and chaos and conflict. I don’t want any part of driving the weapons industry that is raining bombs and missiles down on people in Iran or Lebanon or Syria.
“I know Newcastle doesn’t want to be any part of that. But that’s exactly what Labor's plan for the Hunter is. They can see that their decades-long attachment to the coal industry is a dead end for the Hunter. And they've chosen a worse than dead end,” Shoebridge said.
“Companies like BAE and Kongsberg are making a killing right now out of killing people,” he added.
Steve O’Brien, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the Newcastle mayor election, told Green Left: “Newcastle City Council, along with Port Stephens Council, own the Williamtown airport which has become the site of a missile factory. Instead of it becoming a hub for renewables, as we were promised, we’re now being taken down the path of Australia’s drive to war in partnership with the United States and other imperialist powers. That’s a real travesty. That’s a real injustice.”
Doug Hewitt AM, from Christians for Peace, told GL: “We don’t support our federal government replacing coal mining with weapons manufacturing. And the objective that our government has to become one of the top 10 weapons exporters is something that we’ve got to oppose very strongly.
“We can’t afford to add to the weapons supply in the world which is currently a staggering $2.7 trillion a year.”
Instead of spending money on armaments, it could properly fund the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Hewitt said.
“In could be invested in climate adaptation and strengthening global health systems to prepare for the next pandemic. Locally, it could mean expanding the manufacture of solar panels and batteries.”
The march ended with people chanting their commitment to keep protesting: “The world is burning. We will keep returning. The world is burning. We will keep returning.”