AUKUS may be paradigm-shifting, normalising the spread of militarised if not weaponised nuclear technologies towards the periphery of the global nuclear order.
Behind AUKUS, the Force Posture Agreement dictates US dominance of our defence powers, while our ‘sovereign defence industrial base’ is largely comprised of multinational arms companies. Time for change.
The agreement may have locked the country into an alliance with the declining superpower for decades while taxpayers subsidise its massive ‘national security’ budget.
Australia’s history is replete with missed opportunities for asserting sovereign independence, for peacefully relating to our region, for sustainable development and for conciliation between settlers and Indigenous peoples.
The Left appears to have very little to say about AUKUS, even though it amounts to the most comprehensive imposition of hegemonic whiteness currently on offer.
In supporting the Coalition government’s decision on AUKUS, the Albanese government has made the most significant departure from the party’s defence and foreign policy tradition in the last forty years.
Progressive politics has become increasingly accommodating of state power in the last two decades, reversing positions that have historically underpinned left-liberal politics.
