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In Australia, anti-Aukus protesters hit out at ‘belligerent nuclear plans’

  • Unions and environmental groups have fought back against government plans for a new base on Australia’s east coast to house Aukus submarines
  • They fear the base could choke an infant clean-energy sector and usher in security curbs, as well as the permanent presence of US warships

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Anti-Aukus protesters stand outside Australia’s parliament in Canberra on Monday. Photo: Reuters
Reuters
Fierce resistance mounted by Australian unions against plans for a new submarine base shows the challenge facing the high-stakes defence project with the United States and Britain that aims to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific region.
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Plans for the base are part of Australia’s largest defence project since the second world war, the acquisition of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines costing up to A$368 billion (US$240 billion).
That fleet is the first major deal of the Aukus security pact, signed in 2021 between Australia, Britain and the US, spurring Canberra’s drive to build or refurbish military infrastructure.
US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks on Aukus the pact in March last year after a trilateral meeting. Photo: Reuters
US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak deliver remarks on Aukus the pact in March last year after a trilateral meeting. Photo: Reuters

Following backlash from unions and environmental groups, the government has said it had not decided on Port Kembla, a bastion of the ruling centre-left Labor government that media had reported to be the favoured location for the base.

“We don’t want to be part of someone else’s belligerent nuclear plans,” said Arthur Rorris, head of the South Coast Labor Council, consisting of unions representing 50,000 workers in the area.

They fear the base could choke an infant clean-energy sector by taking up scarce land and ushering in security curbs, as well as the permanent presence of US warships.

Rorris urged the government to abandon plans for the base while speaking at a protest on Monday outside parliament house, the latest demonstration in a series, some of which drew as many as 5,000 protesters.

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