Pressure mounts on Albanese Government over failure to sign nuclear ban Treaty

Despite repeated promises at the conference and overwhelming public support, Labor continues to stall on signing the nuclear weapons ban treaty highlighted in the Four Corners report, writes Bevan Ramsden.

BREAKING NEWS Four Corners Highlighted program failure Albanian ALP Government will sign and ratify the agreement Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The program also went back in time to show Anthony Albanese introducing the motion at the ALP National Conference, revealing that a ruling ALP government would sign and ratify the Treaty. Richard MarlesNow the Minister of Defense also supported this proposal. While in government the same motion to sign the Treaty was adopted at successive ALP National Conferences.

The ALP came to power in 2022 but did not sign the Treaty during the first term of its government. He stated that he still does not intend to do this, even though he is now in his second government term. He does not lack numbers “on the ground” as he has a significant majority in Parliament.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Richard Marles was questioned Four Corners Program on why the government did not sign this. He had no answer to that question other than to suggest that it was different when you were in government. He gave no indication that the government would sign the Treaty in this second term.

And the Government insistently maintains this attitude. polls showing An overwhelming majority of Australians want the agreement signed as a step towards keeping the world safer from nuclear war. ICANThe International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons has well documented this support.

It does not take much intelligence to understand the reason for the ALP Government’s reluctance to sign the Treaty. Simply put, the signing and ratification of the agreement requires mandatory consequential action to close the United States’ access to certain military facilities related to nuclear warfare capabilities in Australia. Taking this action would jeopardize, if not result in, the end of the US military alliance with Australia.

The ALP Government, and the Liberal Coalition for that matter, are committed to this alliance with enthusiasm and commitment.

States that have signed and ratified the convention TPNW It should not in any way support the nuclear war operations of a nuclear power. Australia currently provides or is in the process of providing at least four facilities that will assist the United States’ nuclear warfare capability.

Pine Gap It provides the US with real-time and vital satellite surveillance data to the nuclear war room in Nevada via the Relay Ground Station in Central Australia for use in nuclear war. If it is to be closed to the USA TPNW signed and approved.

Harold Holt Communications Station The NW Cape at Exmouth in Western Australia allows the US to communicate with its fleet of nuclear-armed, hunter-killer submarines while submerged and send the trigger signal to launch nuclear missiles through this facility. Obviously, the signing and ratification of the contract TPNW It would require shutting down United States access to this communications facility.

Transportation and maintenance facilities currently under construction HMAS Stirling In WA, nuclear hunter-killer submarines from the United States and the United Kingdom will be serviced for $8 billion to Australian taxpayers. The US refuses to confirm or deny whether its nuclear submarines are armed with nuclear weapons.

The Australian government signed and ratified the convention. TPNWand to ensure its compliance with this Treaty, it will need to halt this construction program and refuse the transportation and maintenance facilities of U.S. nuclear submarines.

The fourth facility is being built RAAF Base Tindal In the Northern Territory. This base maintains parking and support facilities for up to six US B-52 bombers, some of which may be nuclear-armed. I repeat, it is US policy to neither confirm nor deny that such bombers carry nuclear weapons.

The same consequential actions will result from the signature and ratification of the Convention. TPNW. Such opportunities cannot be provided to a nuclear-armed power, in this case the United States.

All four of these military facilities were established under the umbrella of the US-Australia military alliance. The facilities on HMAS Stirling are set up as follows: AUKUSa subset of the alliance. Facilities in Tindal are under US Forced Standstill Agreementit is also a subset of the US alliance.

Australians want to reduce the risk of nuclear war and want the Government to sign and ratify the Treaty. It is now vital that we recognize that the US alliance and the military facilities established under its umbrella are the biggest obstacle to the signing of the Treaty. The path to a more peaceful world lies in ending this alliance.

IPANIndependent and Peaceful Australia Network, to campaign For cancellation of AUKUS and termination of the contract Forced Standstill Agreement As steps towards ending the US alliance.

In addition to seeing the alliance as an obstacle to signing the agreement TPNWIPAN considers these military installations to embroil Australia in a US-led war against China; In this case, they will become a missile target for any enemy of the United States.

We are inundated with propaganda portraying China as a threat to Australia. Minister Marles speaks generally of Australia facing a major change in strategic circumstances and China’s massive military build-up, but more specifically he points to China’s threat to shipping lanes in the South China Sea and the need for freedom of navigation exercises to keep shipping lanes open.

By saying this, Marles reveals the shallowness of anti-China rhetoric. China has never threatened shipping lanes in the South China Sea or elsewhere, and for very good reason. It needs these to be open and free for its extensive shipping trade with the world, including Australia.

The real purpose of the so-called “freedom of navigation” exercises, instigated by the United States and obediently followed by Australia, is to gather intelligence on China’s defense activities. For example, Australian and US aircraft and naval ships are dropping sonar buoys into these seas to collect the sound signatures of Chinese submarines to help detect them and prey on them in the event of war.

It’s not much of a surprise that the Chinese PLA opened fire warning flares On Australian aircraft engaged in such activities, including surveillance of coastal military installations.

Professor Clinton Fernandes In his last book, Turbulence: Australian Foreign Policy in the Trump Erastates:

Every ship or submarine has an acoustic signature similar to a sonic fingerprint used for identification purposes. Analysts compare the signals collected by sonobuoys with previously recorded signatures…

Australia and the United States are dropping thousands of sonobuoys from the air [and] Assist in preparing the battlefield by obtaining technical intelligence that enables anti-submarine forces to attack enemy submarines at the beginning of hostilities if ordered. This is no secret to the Chinese military, but it is largely hidden from the Australian public, where the activities are said to constitute merely “freedom of navigation” (a benign and reasonable-sounding term).

Silence about what “freedom of navigation” actually entails shields the Government from democratic accountability and debate about how Australia’s intelligence agencies and military should be used.

IPAN called for these so-called “freedom of navigation” and surveillance exercises by the Australian Navy and Air Force to be stopped and for all such personnel to be recalled to Australia where they could discharge their responsibilities for the genuine territorial defense of Australia. Their activities in the South China Sea and related areas also pose the risk of an incident or miscalculation that could escalate into undesirable hostilities or worse.

Ending the US alliance will make Australia safer and keep us away from unnecessary conflict. This will allow Australia, as an independent country, to maintain peaceful relations with our neighbors and all countries in our region.

In the words of the former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraserin your book, Dangerous Alliessays:

I believe that our relationship with the USA has become a paradox. Our leaders argue that we must keep our alliance with the United States strong to ensure our defense against an aggressive enemy. But the most likely reason why Australia will have to face an aggressive enemy is our strong alliance with the United States. We need America to defend against an aggressor who might attack us because we use America for defense. It is not a sustainable policy.

This does not mean that we do not need our own defense force; But as an independent, alliance-free country, its operations can be directed towards genuine self-defense of our territory rather than engaging in disastrous overseas wars instigated by the United States.

Finally, the late Malcom Fraser, while calling for the breaking of the submissive relationship with the United States, says:

‘An independent Australia could act much more effectively in concert with other Western Pacific countries to avoid flashpoints and danger points while promoting initiatives that would do much to ensure continued peace across the region. But we cannot take such action as part of the American network. We would only be considered the proxy voice of America.’

Bevan Ramsden is a long-time peace activist who returned to full-time volunteer organizing work with the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign, where he served on the National Vietnam Moratorium Campaign committee with Victoria representative Jim Cairns. He has since continued his peace activities, most recently as a member of the national co-ordinating committee of the Independence and Peaceful Australia network and editor of its monthly publication, Voice.

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