United States President Donald Trump’s decision to order a snap review of AUKUS has spurred opposition to AUKUS here, including from less likely quarters, as the chorus demanding Labor rethink its commitment to the United States war machine grows.
Anti-war groups, Socialist Alliance, the Australian Greens, a section of Labor’s membership and even a retired general are calling on Labor not to help the US pursue its dangerous China containment strategy.
The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network’s (IPAN) Dr Tilman Ruff and Associate Professor Marianne Hanson said in late May that “AUKUS will come at a huge financial cost and … is likely to compound Australia’s strategic risks, heighten geopolitical tensions, and undermine efforts at nuclear non-proliferation.”
It said it “puts Australia at odds with our closest neighbours … distracts us from addressing climate change and risks increasing the threat of nuclear war.”
Australians for War Powers Reform spokesperson Peter Murphy said: “The AUKUS pact has become a textbook example of how to disenfranchise the community, providing almost no transparency or democracy in a sweeping and exorbitantly expensive decision which will affect Australia for decades.” Some of the multiple unanswered questions about AUKUS are documented in AWPR’s recent report AUKUS: the surrender of transparency, accountability and sovereignty.
Socialist Alliance has opposed AUKUS since its inception in 2021 and continues to call for it to be scrapped, along with closing Pine Gap and other US bases.
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens spokesperson for defence and foreign affairs, said Labor must have a “full inquiry into this dud deal”. He said it is already clear what the US review will say: “The US does not have any spare submarines to give to Australia.
“Trump will use this review to either terminate AUKUS and pocket the money already paid or extract an even more eye-watering sum from Australia to stay in the sinking project without any hard promises for the US to deliver.”
Retired Major General Michael G Smith AO, a founding member of the Australian Peace and Security Forum (APSF), also called on a parliamentary review of AUKUS “inviting full public consultation”. He said on June 13 it is “misleading” for Labor and the Coalition to claim that AUKUS was reviewed as part of the 2024 National Defence Strategy. APSF said “AUKUS was conceived in secret, without parliamentary nor public disclosure or consultation”.
Future AUKUS submarine bases, as well as existing US bases and so-called “joint facilities”, contribute to Australia unnecessarily becoming a military target in the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China.
Smith said the ~$368 billion cost of AUKUS over a 30–40 year timeframe “unbalances” the Australian Defence Force and “denies opportunities to strengthen more relevant defensive and non-aggressive capabilities, and to pursue a more independent approach in a multi-polar world”.
APSF said in its submission to the British inquiry on AUKUS that it is not in Britain, or Australia’s, interests to be part of a “China containment strategy”.
Labor Against War also wants an independent review into AUKUS. It said when former PM Scott Morrison announced AUKUS in 2021, Labor’s front bench “spent less than 24 hours” considering the deal and it was pushed through caucus and National Conference.
Former Labor Senator Doug Cameron, a national patron of Labor Against War, said: “Australians spend more time and due diligence reviewing the purchase of a television, or a car, than the Labor front bench spent kicking the tyres on AUKUS.
“With Donald Trump’s Pentagon announcing a review, it’s high time the Labor government had the courage to initiate an independent review to ensure the Australian people aren’t being taken to the cleaners while dragged into US war planning.”
Marcus Strom, Labor Against War national convenor, said Albanese “needs to show some backbone” and “let Trump know Australians won’t bear the costs of the Pentagon’s war plans against China”.