Australia didn’t vote for this war, but it’s fighting it anyway

Australia is embroiled in a war for which it never voted, writes Hassan El Biali, in a silence that belies how deeply complicit its alliances and infrastructure make it.

While the US is bombing Iran, Australia says nothing because the plan is to say nothing. A look at how AUKUS And Pine Gap Australia’s territory actual a participant in a war for which no Australian voted.

I was watching the footage from the first week Operation Epic Rage – port infrastructure in flames, cable news generals with laser pointers – as a Canberra declaration flashes down the strip. Australia recorded strikes. Australia sided with its allies. There is nothing else to add.

There is nothing else to add. While a country of 90 million people is being bombed.

This silence is not shameful. This is politics. And Australians who have never been consulted, never been given a parliamentary vote, deserve to understand what their government is doing on their behalf.

AUKUS was never just about submarines

When AUKUS was launched in 2021, it was sold as a strategic modernization. Nuclear-powered submarines. Technology sharing. A hedge against the uncertain Indo-Pacific. What was never honestly described was a structural commitment to fighting. america’s wars.

The US Navy has revolved around Darwin Since 2012. American B-52s RAAF Tindal. Pine Gap, a joint facility near Alice Springs, contributes to missile tracking and U.S. targeting operations in the Middle East, according to independent analysts. When a bomb falls on Iran, Australian infrastructure almost certainly becomes part of the operational picture.

No one in Canberra has confirmed this. Nobody denied this.

Voting that never happened

Here’s the part that should anger every Australian: There was no vote.

Not in parliament. Not in the referendum. The decision to embed Australia so deeply into the US military infrastructure to the point that disengagement would become impossible in the event of a crisis was taken quietly between the governments of both parties. there is almost no democratic scrutiny.

Response of the Albanian Government Operation Epic Fury has been a masterclass in strategic uncertainty. Ministers expressed “concerns” about stability while reaffirming the alliance. They called for a “diplomatic solution” while refraining from criticizing the military action that triggered the crisis.

Compare this to this: Germany and France – both NATO allies – have publicly stated that unilateral attacks without UN permission were a mistake. Australia, which had no treaty obligation to support this war, failed even to do so.

Pine Gap and the question no one wants to answer

Pine Gap is one of the most important American intelligence assets in the world. It captures signals in Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Former intelligence officials, including Australians, said it contributed to targeting data used in US drone and strike operations.

Whether Australian personnel bear legal responsibility for the results produced by these operations is still a live question. international humanitarian law. Canberra never responded to this. Minab school strike in March 2026The terrorist attack that killed at least 175 students makes this silence difficult to defend.

Even Trump Administration He initially tried to deny that the attack was carried out with American weapons.

What would an independent foreign policy look like?

None of these are arguments that require the US alliance to be shelved. This is an argument for Australia to have a view. New Zealand he achieved this. Canada had previously vociferously withdrawn certain US operations before the alliance collapsed.

A truly independent Australia would have demanded a UN Security Council referral before attacks. He would insist that Australian territory could not be used for operations that violated international humanitarian law. He would present the problem to parliament.

None of this happened. None of them are seriously offered.

Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is its own goal

Australia introduces itself as champion non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. We signed the NPT. We support inspection regimes. And then we provide the infrastructure for a military campaign that, no matter how deniable, has done more to encourage nuclear weapons development in the Middle East than anything done since Iraq.

Any serious analyst will tell you: A country bombed without nuclear deterrence draw the obvious lesson About what nuclear deterrence is for. The contradiction is surprising. And it’s almost never talked about.

Canberra owes us an answer

I don’t know exactly what Australian systems contributed to Operation Epic Fury. I don’t know if the Pine Gap data fed into the targeting chain that hit the school in Minab. I do not know whether any Australian officials raised objections and whether they were rejected.

So are you. That’s the problem.

In a democracy, when your country participates in a war, even indirectly, through infrastructure, even through silence, the public has the right to know. It’s not a summary that has been declassified for three years. Now.

The people who finance these facilities deserve to know what they are paying for.

Hassan Elbiali is a political analyst and commentator specializing in international relations, geopolitical relations, and the intersection of law and power.

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