Greens Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Peace and Nuclear Disarmament will accept IPAN’s petition and table it in the Australian Senate today.
Senator Jordon Steele-John said:
“I am proud to receive and table in the Senate Independent and Peaceful Australia Network’s petition which has been signed by 26,700 members of the community.”
“The petition represents the view of many in our community who want Australia to withdraw from the AUKUS agreement, and want Australia to stop being at the beck and call of the United State of America and their military ambitions.
“The world is facing an unprecedented climate crisis and rapidly expanding wealth inequality. The solutions to these things will take global cooperation. The AUKUS pact escalates tensions in the Asia-Pacific and significantly increases the likelihood of nuclear arms proliferation among non-nuclear armed states.
“Our community has broadly rejected AUKUS and no one wants nuclear submarines to be floating off the coast near Brisbane or near my hometown of Rockingham in WA.
“Instead of investing billions of dollars into submarines that no one needs or asked for, we must reallocate funding from the military to services our community actually needs; things like free dental care included under Medicare, properly funding the NDIS, or building more affordable and accessible homes.”
Annette Brownlie, Chairperson of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) said:
“Community opposition to the secret deal of AUKUS dropped on the Australian people one year ago, is evidenced by this petition being tabled today in the Senate by Senator Jordon Steele-John signed by 26,700 Australians.
“The large number of Australians who have signed these public calls for peace with priority being directed to healthcare not warfare is an indication of the depth of concern in the community about the defence and foreign policy directions of the Australian Government.
“The financial blowout for Australians in this era of war talk and preparations is absurd with costs of over $170B estimated for the nuclear-propelled submarines alone.
“Around the world, people are speaking up opposing the war preparation economy and we in Australia need to build the public voice for independent peacebuilding policies, an end to the AUKUS pact and calling on the current government to urgently sign the United Nations Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).”