Kathy Newnam, Darwin
Following discussions on June 5 between defence minister Robert Hill and US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the plan for a joint US-Australia military facility in northern Australia has been officially placed on the agenda for US-Australia ministerial talks next month in Washington. Cooperation on missile defence will also be discussed.
While Hill has been quick to state that the joint facility will not be a "US base", nor will there be any pre-positioning of military equipment, there is little detail about what the agreement may entail. What has been emphasised by both governments is the important role such a joint facility would play in the US military strategy of forward positioning. It will also further the integration of the US and Australian military machines, thus strengthening the capacity of the Australian military to fight alongside the US in future wars.
According to ABC Radio reports on June 8, there are already US teams inspecting possible sites in the Northern Territory and Queensland.
Most commentators believe that the most likely site would be Shoalwater Bay — an area north of Rockhampton that since 1997 has been home to the largest regularly scheduled military exercise in the western Pacific.
This likelihood has not stopped the NT Labor government from arguing forcefully about the positioning of the base. To the disgust of many anti-war activists, it is lobbying to have the facility positioned in the NT.
According to media reports, likely options for the NT would be Mount Bundy or Bradshaw Station. In comments to the June 8 NT News, NT defence support minister Paul Henderson reflected the federal government's defensive stance: "There is no talk at all about permanent placement of US defence force personnel in the NT or anywhere else." Like the federal government, he was also eager to point out that the facility would not be a US base.
Anti-war activist Ray Hayes commented that "they would say that it won't be a base, because millions of people around the world and here in Australia know that US bases bring with them major problems ranging from child prostitution to destruction of the local environment. They can call it what they like — whether it is a training facility or a base, it will still have a devastating impact, wherever its proposed location."
Hayes, who is the Socialist Alliance's lead Senate candidate in the Northern Territory, also questioned the credibility of Hill: "How could you believe anything that Hill says these days? After the weapons of mass destruction that weren't there; after the torture that they said they didn't know about, which we now know they did.
"It is becoming increasingly obvious to more and more people that Australia's support for current US foreign policy is wrong. One day this policy will be proved under international law to have been responsible for a series of war crimes — whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Guantanamo Bay. It's time to bring this to an end. We don't want a US base and we don't want a US training facility — in the Northern Territory or anywhere else."
Darwin anti-war activists have begun discussions about protest actions to coincide with the Australia-US ministerial consultations. For more information phone NO WAR on (08) 8981 4714 or email <no_war_nt@yahoo.com.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, June 23, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.