I acknowledge we are holding this protest rally on stolen Kaurna land, whose sovereignty was never ceded. 

 

Firstly, thank you for inviting me to speak at this critically important protest. I am not only a member of PACOA (the Port Adelaide Community Opposes AUKUS) but I'm also the convener of IPAN-SA (the Independent & Peaceful Australia Network), to which PACOA is affiliated.

 

The missile program that Southern Launch operates—which is backed by the Federal and South Australian governments and seven aerospace companies, mostly overseas corporations—is another example of the dispossession of First Nations in this country by the settler colonial class. In the past, the colonial state used native police to crush Indigenous resistance. Now the colonial "divide and rule" tactic has been modernized, with Southern Launch buying off some Indigenous people in Koonibba to violate sovereign Googatha land.

 

The Australian State has been, and still is, at war with First Nations. The Frontier Wars, Aboriginal reserves, missions, and stations, the Aborigines Protection Boards, the Stolen Generation, Black Deaths in Custody, and the mass incarceration of Aboriginal youth are all appalling atrocities that blot Australia's history. These attacks by the colonial settlers and the Australian state were designed to destroy the Indigenous population, culture, and language, with the ultimate goal of stealing their land. Australia's history from 1788 has been the appalling story of genocide.

 

This war continues today. Whether it is mining—in particular, uranium mining—nuclear waste dumps, or military bases, First Nations' sovereignty is swept away for the purposes of the aggressive capitalist state to rape and despoil this ancient land. When the state was forced to come to terms with the Aboriginal Land Rights campaigns of the 60s through to the 90s, it came up with the Native Title Act, which in effect emasculated land rights. They didn't do First Nations any favours; they just worked out another way to swindle you.

 

 

The missile operations of Southern Launch on Googatha country continue that nefarious tradition of overriding consent and dispossessing sovereignty. I took the opportunity to look into these aerospace firms that use Southern Launch's missile launch pad. They are a pretty opaque bunch, but this is what I found out. However, a couple of the previous speakers have covered what these aerospace corporations are up to with their technology designed for the military.

 

In the 1970's I was a member of the Campaign Against Foreign Military Bases. Back then "Yankee Go Home!" and "Kick Out US Bosses And Bases" were popular chants.

 

So, I say to: 

 

• Thales Group, a French multinational aerospace and defence corporation; 

• Varda Space Industries, a privately held American space research company; 

• HyImpulse, a German private space launch enterprise; 

• Reaction Dynamics, a rocket manufacturing company from Canada; 

• The German Aerospace Center with the German initials DLR,  the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research; 

• AtSpace, which also goes by another name, Taiwan Innovative Space Inc. It functions as a space launch company for Taiwan; 

• Perigee Aerospace, a South Korean private developer and manufacturer of orbital and sub-orbital launch vehicles, 

 

get out! and go home! Otherwise, we'll kick you out and send you home.

 

No doubt the Australia Space Agency and ADF ensure that the missile technology that is tested at the Southern Launch facility at Koonibba has military applications. In the 50s and 60s Australia was the test bed for British nuclear bomb testing at Maralinga and rocket launching at Woomera. Southern Launch at Koonibba follows in those reprehensible footsteps. The Australia Space Agency in conjunction with the ADF is playing its part in the current militarisation of Australia.

 

We are all presently witnessing a second Cold War developing between the USA, China and Russia. This time, the United States is preparing Australia as a launch pad to attack China. In addition to Pine Gap and North West Cape military bases, the US has established a marine troop base in Darwin, B-52 nuclear-armed bombers at the RAAF Tindal air force base, and turned the Stirling Naval facility in WA into a base for US and UK nuclear submarines, dubbed the Submarine Rotational Forces - West. Basing US nuclear submarines in Australia is the Trojan Horse outcome of AUKUS. I doubt very much that Australia will ever get the Virginia-class nuclear subs. We may get the British-designed SSN-AUKUS class nuclear subs to be built at Osborne. There was certainly no consent given by the Kaurna People to build nuclear subs in Yerta Bulti! Yerta Bulti is the Kaurna name for the Port/Lefevre Peninsula.

 

Since Federation, the Australian Defence Force has been no more than an extra battalion for the British Empire and now US imperialism. It would be more honest to call the ADF the American Deputy Force. In its present configuration, it has become interoperable and interchangeable with the US military. It will go anywhere and commit any aggression that the US Empire commands. For example, the US Defence Intelligence Agency has merged with Australia's Defence Intelligence Organisation in Canberra to form the Combined Intelligence Centre. You know who's in charge, and it is not Australia.

 

Therefore, we must stand with Aunty Sue and the Googatha people to oppose Southern Launch missile tests, which are a violation of First Nations sovereignty. Its operations have military applications and are part of the militarisation of Australia in preparation for the next US-led war of aggression.

 

Oppose the march to war, fight for First Nations sovereignty, and stop the destruction of this ancient land.

 

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

 

Thank you.