VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
(AI generated. Supplied)
One of the arts of leadership is to set an example of behaviours appropriate to one’s policies and objectives.
The recent ALP National Conference had the abysmal triumvirate doing just that.
Not wanting participants to see beyond a tightly AUKUS-trated agenda, to ask questions on matters already decided, or to be prepared to listen to dissenting opinion, Albanese, Wong and Marles have set their own example in relation to the AUKUS arrangements.
These “wise monkeys” have denied their own accountability for these arrangements and refuse to ask questions of their imperial masters on many issues, but two typify their “wisdom”.
They relate to the expansion of the Tindal Air Base outside Katherine in the NT, and the construction of Submarine Base West at Stirling in WA.
Tindal
The Tindal Air Base is being expanded to host six nuclear-weapons capable US B-52 bombers.
Australia has committed over A$14 billion over the coming decade for northern base upgrades, of which Tindal is one element. The US will contribute to the expansion, but Australia will pay for expansion of aircraft parking aprons suitable for B-52 bombers, fuel systems, accommodation, security and communications.
There has been no public debate about why the US should base B-52 bombers in Australia.
The triumvirate say they will not ask the US whether those B-52 are carrying nuclear bombs. They say they respect the US right to neither confirm nor deny such information.
Stirling
As part of the AUKUS arrangements, HMAS Stirling, the naval base located on Garden Island, 50 km south of Perth, has become part of Fleet Base (West). It is being upgraded as the site for the Submarine Rotational Forces-West (SRF-W) initiative whereby the US and UK would maintain a permanent rotational presence of nuclear-powered submarines at the base. From 2027, that will include one UK Astute Class submarine and up to four US Virginia-class submarines. All are nuclear-powered and capable of carrying nuclear weaponry.
The Australian Government is paying almost all of the infrastructure costs including construction of new wharves and maintenance facilities, utilities, security and housing. These costs are officially estimated to be $8bn.
Included in the costs are 550 new homes for US and UK submarine crews to be built by private contractors and leased to Defence Housing Australia.
There has been no public debate about why nuclear submarines from foreign countries should be permanently based in Australia.
The triumvirate say they will not ask the US or UK whether those submarines are carrying nuclear missiles. They say they respect the US and UK right to neither confirm nor deny such information.
In a remarkable admission to the Public Inquiry into AUKUS, Brigadier the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC (Retd), Minister for Defence (2019-2012) stated:
If kinetic war was to break out to our north, here in Australia I believe we would be not only subjected to heighten hybrid attacks, but we would also be subjected to precision kinetic attacks. The joint facilities, bases and airfields across our approaches are already targets and a capable adversary would strike them early. A war that looked northern would not stay in the north.
NCND
These expansions of US military facilities on Australian soil that make us targets in a kinetic (real) war are consistent with the Force Posture Agreement (FPA) framework which guarantees the US the right to access Australian facilities when and where it likes.
Article 7 of the FPA states:
“United States Forces and its contractors shall have unimpeded access to Agreed Facilities and Areas for all matters relating to the pre-positioning and storage of defence equipment and supplies including delivery, management, inspection, use, maintenance and removal of such pre-positioned material. As mutually determined by the Parties, aircraft, vehicles and vessels operated by or for United States Forces shall have access to aerial ports and sea ports of Australia and other locations, for the delivery to, storage and maintenance in, and removal from, the territory of Australia of United States Forces’ pre-positioned material.”
Not only can it do what it likes, where it likes, it can deny whatever it likes and conceal whatever it likes.
And that is because the simpering triumvirate of US Empire loyalists have agreed between themselves that they just won’t ask their masters any questions that the masters don’t want to answer, such as “Do US B-52 bombers at Tindal carry nuclear weapons?” and “Do US-UK submarines at Stirling carry nuclear weapons?”
It is sad to think that 40 years ago, New Zealand had the guts to do what the Triumvirate won't. They called the US bluff on “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” (NCND) in relation to nuclear weapons brought into that country. In 1984, the USS Buchanan was meant to visit New Zealand. By the early 1980s, New Zealand had developed one of the world's strongest anti-nuclear movements. It led to a NZ government policy that required visiting militaries to declare whether their ships and planes were carrying nuclear weapons.When the US refused to answer the question, the NZ government banned the Buchanan from entering its waters. The US retaliated by suspending NZ’s involvement in ANZUS. Both the ban and the suspension remain in place and NZ still exists.
It is time for Australia to break free from the US.
Demand that Albanese, Wong and Marles ask the question.
We have a right to know.