FROM WARFARE TO WEALTH — A tale of three conferences

This article is the final installment in our in-depth series. FIGHT FOR RICHNESS. This series is a collection of notable reports by former diplomats, politicians and academics. Provides a detailed critique of the Federal Government’s defense and foreign policy conduct; Analysis of the $368 billion AUKUS commitment and the broader militarization of our economy.

With the ALP national conference due to start later this week (23-25 July), it is hoped that the discussions taking place here can help shift the Government’s policy platform and strategic direction away from its current focus on militarisation.

This article is the eighth installment, the last in the From War to Riches: Redirecting Australia’s Future series. you can readother parts of this series HERE.

Chapter 8: A tale of three conferences

Three Adelaide conferences revealed competing visions for Australia’s future, from militarization and AUKUS to peace and sovereignty, writes David Higginbottom.

AT THE END OF JULY 2026, the city of Adelaide will host an extraordinary series of events.

Three separate conferences will convene in the South Australian capital over the same few days. Together they represent rival forces fighting for the soul of Australia’s foreign policy and the future of our national wealth.

the first one Australian Labor Party National Conference. The ruling party will discuss here National PlatformFacing growing pressure from their base to reclaim Australia’s sovereignty, reform its war powers and question Australia’s massive financial burden AUKUS agreement. And then either approve the militarization of the economy or rethink the policy platform.

The second is the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) national conference. Bringing together peace activists, unionists, environmentalists and First Nations leaders, this event is building a movement to repeal AUKUS and demand an independent foreign policy. Featuring American filmmaker Abby Martindocumentary, The World’s Greatest EnemyIt reveals that the US military is the world’s largest corporate polluter.

But it is the third conference that reveals the true nature of the challenge we face. just down the road Adelaide OvalThe military-industrial complex holds its own meeting: Global Knowledge Summit Australia 2026. Hosted by the newly formed Australian Information Power Institute (IPIASummit brings together defense contractors, state government agencies and intelligence officials from around the world Five Eyes nations.

If you want to understand why Australia is spending $368 billion on nuclear submarines while the world burns, you need to take a close look at who’s in the room at Adelaide Oval; but you will need a high-level security clearance to do so.

like that All taxpayers’ money is laundered through strategic consultancy and information warfare mechanisms.

war work

The Global Knowledge Summit is not an independent academic study. It is an Australian franchise of the US military-derived “information operations” conference series, co-hosted by US professional associations deeply embedded in the Pentagon’s cognitive warfare apparatus.

The summit’s sponsorship list is like a guide to the modern influencer industry. Among platinum sponsors M&C Saatchi World Services – a private strategic communications contractor with a track record of government-funded influence operations – and the South Australian Government.

The Gold Sponsor of the Summit is more descriptive: Elysium EPL. Founded by military veterans, this Canberra-based consultancy has won nearly $74 million in Commonwealth contracts, including a recent $9.7 million contract from the Ministry of Defense for “Submarine Support Services”. Notably, one of the directors of the Elysium EPL also serves as the director of IPIA, the organization hosting the conference.

This is the activity of the military-industrial complex. It is a closed ecosystem in which government agencies fund defense contractors, who in turn sponsor opaque institutes that host conferences to lobby the same government agencies for more funding.

like that All taxpayers’ money is laundered through strategic consultancy and information warfare mechanisms.

We are pouring our national wealth into the war machine when we need every dollar possible to fund true human security, including transforming our energy grid, building climate resilience, and Closing the Gap for First Nations People.

The last test of humanity

The difference between these three Adelaide conferences could not be starker. While the IPAN conference discusses how to promote peace and prevent climate collapse, the ALP discusses its democratic spirit, the Global Knowledge Summit spends a full day on a secret “practical war game scenariofacilitated by the USA Irregular Warfare Center.

As I have previously argued in the Independent A.In Australia we are currently facing humanity’s final test. Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock It remains motionless at 85 seconds before midnight. Military expenditures increased in the world A record US$2.9 trillion (AU$4.1 trillion), marking the 11th consecutive annual increase. The economic cost of violence is almost decreasing 10.5 percent of global GDP.

We are pouring our national wealth into the war machine at a time when we need every available dollar to transform our energy grid, build climate resilience, and fund true human security. Bridging the Gap For First Nations people.

The AUKUS pact is the final expression of this misallocation. We are told that nuclear-powered submarines are necessary to protect us from China. But China is our largest trading partner, receiving a third of our exports and providing $200 billion in two-way trade. The threat narrative deliberately obscures the fact that China is already surrounded by numerous US military bases, from Japan to the Philippines to Australia.

We have chosen to approach our problems as military threats, treating them as symptoms of a planet in distress rather than disease, and have allowed the architecture of our foreign policy to be hijacked by contractors and lobbyists who profit from the constant tension.

They have the authority to say that Australia’s sovereignty has not been sold to the highest bidding defense contractor.

We protect our future

The close call in Adelaide is not just a coincidence of timing; it is a manifestation of the choice facing Australia.

Will we listen to the voices on Adelaide Oval who see the Indo-Pacific as a theater for “irregular warfare” and “information domination”? Or will we listen to the voices at the IPAN conference who understand that true security comes from diplomacy, demilitarization and regional cooperation?

The burden of this election falls squarely on the delegates to the ALP National Conference. They have the authority to demand that the government divert our national wealth from war to security. They have the power to insist on parliamentary control over the decision to go to war. They have the authority to say that Australia’s sovereignty will not be sold to the highest bidding defense contractor.

Three conferences in Adelaide offer a clear view of our possible future:

one path leads to an endless, escalating arms race led by consultants and funded by Australian taxpayers; And

the other path leads to a true peace dividend, where our extraordinary resources are used to build a sustainable, independent and secure nation.

It’s election time.

David Higginbottom is a member of the coordinating committee. Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) and coordinator of the Make Peace Our Priority campaign (mpap.au).

This article, FROM WAR TO RICH, is the eighth and final in a multi-part series examining the true costs of our current defense trajectory and exploring the alternatives suggested by Make Peace a Priority.MPAP) offer.

Read other parts of this series: