CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Scrutinizing the Unpardonable: The AUKUS Public Inquiry So Far

Photograph Source: Petty Officer 2nd Class Dartanon Delagarza – Public Domain

In the annals of policy, strategy and budgeting, the AUKUS pact comprising Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States will be seen as one of the most mindless, absurd projects of tiny, poorly furnished minds.  Not for those in the UK and US, with both receiving Croesus-rich dollops of Australian cash for stuttering submarine programs.  Not for flabby think tankers who repeatedly run out bills on the advisory circuit lauding the importance of costly boats and the China threat.  It will be down to Australian government officials, elected and appointed, who seek the imaginary assurance of nuclear-powered submarines that they do not need, expending money they can scarce afford (AU$368 billion), while surrendering the country’s sovereignty in carefree, even treasonous manner.

It is for these reasons that Australian civil society has sprung into action.  As the Australian government thinks it beneath them to conduct a review of the merits of the AUKUS pact at the official level (the United Kingdom and United States have, at the very least, done so), public representatives and citizens have seized the reins.  The crowd founded AUKUS Public Inquiry, coordinated by the Australian Peace and Security Forum (APSF), is the result.  At its helm is former federal environment minister and frontman for Midnight Oil Peter Garrett.  Former MPs, retired military and naval officers of such standing as former chief of the Australian Defence Force Chris Barrie, an assortment of strategists and academics, human rights lawyers and unions are all part of the scrutineering show.

The inquiry is pursuing a number of vital questions.  Will Australia ever receive those lauded submarines, be they the Virginia-class from the US Navy or the specifically designed SSN-AUKUS model? Where and how will the toxic high-level nuclear waste be stored, given that Australia has no standing facility for such a function?  How many actual jobs will be created in Australia, and how distorting will this prove to the rest of the economy?  Why does Australia find itself in a situation where it will potentially join a foolish war, arm-in-arm with the United States against China, Canberra’s largest trading partner?  The last two questions of the inquiry crucially consider whether Australia will essentially become a vassal outpost of the US imperium, and whether the pact will ripen Australia as an inviting nuclear target.

The first hearings in Melbourne, held on June 11, made compelling viewing.  Former Labor Foreign Minister Gareth Evans was the first witness and uncompromisingly blunt in his submission: “The AUKUS Pillar I Submarine project was misconceived from the outset, and the passage of time since its announcement in 2021 has served only to make more compelling the conclusion that it is not in Australia’s national........

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