Resources for the Militarisation of the Hunter Region

The Hunter Region will play a significant part in the expansion of Australia's production of arms and armaments. All levels of Government, including Port Stephens and Newcastle Councils, along with the University of Newcastle, are investing heavily in and facilitating the militarisation of our industries and our education. The Hunter is also listed as a site for dumping the nuclear waste of our AUKUS partners. 

This is not the vision we need or want. At a time when we must rapidly transition to a low carbon economy, when the inalienability of international humanitarian law is seriously undermined, and when our communities call for disengagement from the dangerous US empire, we need to organise and mobilise to create an alternative future. 

Below are some resources to help you gain a greater understanding of how this is unfolding in the Hunter Region.

Our previous blog post on militarisation of the Hunter - Militarisation of the Hunter Region: AUKUS, the Hunter Defense Taskforce and Newcastle Airport weapons hub — Free Palestine Newcastle-Muloobinba

1. Why we objected to Kongsberg - https://www.instagram.com/p/C-hZv6Mzml7/

2. Kongsberg and Newcastle Airport’s financial viability - https://www.instagram.com/p/DCJLzEVzYVw/

3. Kongsberg and Palestine - https://www.instagram.com/p/C-9o31JT1JJ/

4. Kongsberg and Hunter Defence Taskforce - https://www.instagram.com/p/C_hnbVwzX67/

5. $74 billion to the Explosive Ordnance Weapons Plan - https://www.instagram.com/p/DByOe_CTGvg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

6. Australia as a US military outpost - https://www.instagram.com/p/C-wZdQrTkUm/

7. Lockheed Martin - https://www.instagram.com/p/C7_cPk7BKVq/

8. Open letter to Uon re. Lockheed Martin - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8oJb5jBFaB/

9. Nupress - https://www.instagram.com/p/DAdVMsCTXt3/

10. Raytheon’s war crimes and corporate crimes - https://www.instagram.com/p/DBa1ffozyaD/

Developer’s response to objections to an $850 million missile factory in our suburbs

Muloobinba- Newcastle weekly protesting legends outside warmongering MP Pat Conroy’s office

The ruling class wants us to go through the proper processes because they control the proper processes.

The NSW State Government recently published the developer’s response to the 87 public objections to the missile factory at Williamtown to be operated by Norwegian company, Kongsberg’s (more here). The response was prepared by Barr Planning, a local Newcastle consultancy. Barr Planning is living proof that the role of environmental assessors is to (a) make sure the proponent gets what they want by (b) unironically quote inadequate planning regulations that do nothing to protect people or the environment, rather than to inform good planning.

In what is most certainly a tattered cut and paste job cranked out over decades of developer-led development, Barr Planning added the stamp, No modifications required. We recommend that the development be approved. (Barr also assessed the controversial Broadmeadow development and is the consultant of choice for ex-Mayor and developer Geoff McCloy. McCloy infamously appeared before ICAC after giving a former Liberal State MP money in a brown paper bag. That former MP is Tim Owen, now head of Hunter Defence Taskforce. You couldn’t make this stuff up).

Below is a summary of the developer’s response to objections. (Some creative license is used but this is nonetheless accurate)

Our objection: Lack of community consultation

The developer’s response: Thanks for the 87 objections but we don’t need to talk to you because (a) you live outside a 1km radius of the site and (b) we already sent some emails to some computers and put some letters in some letterboxes.

The developer chose to not conduct any further community consultations despite this being a key cause for objection. “No further engagement has been undertaken with the community to respond to issues raised within their submissions. The extent of engagement undertaken in the preparation of the EIS is considered to have been proportionate and appropriate to the impact of the Project.” As noted in the objections, two defence family organisations were contacted, and this may well have involved nothing more than sending an email.

Our objection: Council needs to act ethically

The developer’s response: Council does not need to act ethically

The most sizeable number of reasons for objecting to the development (75%) relate to the need for Councils to act ethically.

Newcastle and Port Stephens Councils’ argument is that the Local Government Act’s requirement for ethical conduct doesn’t apply because they have set up a separate entity to lease land to weapons companies. One of the most astounding sections of the Response states that even under the Local Government Act, ethical conduct is “guiding principles of a general nature [that does not require] Councils to conduct themselves in a particular way... A breach of the principles does not give rise to a cause of action.” 

Having a bob each way, the Councils are telling us that there is no requirement for ethical conduct because (a) they as developers are a corporate entity (presumably where ethics don’t apply) and (b) ethical conduct is discretionary and even when breached the public can’t do anything about it.

Our objection: This is not in the public interest

Developer’s response 1: ‘Public interest’ is non-defined and nebulous (yes, they actually said that)

The Response says that public interest “does not have any fixed meaning…nor, generally speaking, can it be defined. It is not desirable …to prescribe some generally applicable rule [or] give a description”. Sounds as watertight as the concept of “ethical conduct”.

2: The decision maker, aka the war mongering government, will define ‘public interest’

The Response quotes case law stating, “It is largely for the decision-maker…to determine which matters he [sic] regards as relevant and the comparative importance to be accorded to matters”. This is problematic when the decision maker is a state government with a vested interest in and commitment to militarisation (as per NSW Government Defence and Industry Strategy 2017 The Defence Strategy New South Wales: Strong, Smart and Connected [Defence NSW, 2017]). Not to mention the decision maker is of the same party that has super glued us to AUKUS, and which currently has the US breathing down it’s neck to make more weapons and remove export licensing requirements because they are slowing things down.

Developer’s response 3: There are competing views about what is in the public interest

This is despite the fact that all 87 public submissions objected to the development, and the overwhelming international humanitarian law expertise and climate science that tells us making weapons is very, very bad).

Developer’s response 4: Those who object are a small percentage of the population who have “philosophical concerns” with the development.

What can we say? International humanitarian law and the future of the planet are not “philosophical”.

Developer’s response 5: The development is in keeping with the planning frameworks the government (i.e. us) came up with and we’ll ignore all the social, economic and environmental priorities in those plans that it is absolutely not in keeping with.

Our objection: Concerns about the real nature of the development

Developer’s response: We didn’t reveal the operator, we told the public this was for the manufacture of “defence related components” and put this in a zoning category alongside creative industries and artisan food and drinks because we didn’t want to say this is the largest missile factory in the country.

The Response states “Light industry means a building or place used to carry out an industrial activity that does not interfere with the amenity of the neighbourhood by reason of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, vapour, steam, soot, ash, dust, wastewater, waste products, grit or oil, or otherwise”. Yet this development includes an underground waste fuel storage facility on PFAS contaminated land, deliveries made via b-double trucks, and actual missile parts being trucked out.

Our objections: The development is in a bushfire and flood zone, and we’re worried about biodiversity and koala habitat

Developer’s response (SERIOUSLY, DO THEY SEE THE IRONY?): Don’t worry about bushfires because we’ve cleared the vegetation since the zoning was done. You therefore don’t need to worry about biodiversity and koala habitat either because we destroyed that when we cleared the vegetation. We have no idea how to respond to the flood zone issue, so we’ll just ignore it.

We already knew these development processes aren’t established to serve our interests, or the interests of the planet. They are part of the machinery of imperialism and white colonial capitalism. We do demand that this development undergo a public review process, fitting with the seriousness of concerns and the implications for the global community should it go ahead. We will be protesting this development, and should we need to, we will also be disrupting it.

Militarisation of the Hunter Region: AUKUS, the Hunter Defense Taskforce and Newcastle Airport weapons hub

War sells weapons, and the global demand for weapons has grown significantly in recent years. Profiting from weapons also requires more and more conflicts and, within these conflicts, increased use of weapons. The wholly disproportionate assaults on Gaza - the use of carpet bombing, synchronous land, air and sea assaults, the use of heavy armoured machinery to destroy life, land and infrastructure – are clearly driven by “israel’s” genocidal vision. It is also driven by an industry dynamic which craves massive deployment of weaponry and sets little to no limits on how it achieves this.

Communities around Australia are feeling the effects of this by having things like nuclear submarines forced on them, and with the expansion of weapons manufacturing capability in our suburbs.

The past two weeks have seen actionists around the country disrupting the war machine that the Australian government is funding and building. Blockade Australia stopped the fossil fuel supply chain in the Hunter Region, making the connection between ecocide and genocide as they did it. Community in WA and Melbourne are preparing to disrupt the upcoming Land Forces conferences. Hundreds of protesters in Naarm (Melbourne) made their presence felt at the AUKUS conference, surrounding the venue for hours and chanting for the liberation of Palestine and an end to militarisation.

AUKUS (short for Australia, UK and US) is a trilateral military alliance that locks Australia into buying weapons and technology from the US (think nuclear subs and AI), sharing intelligence, and effectively hosting US military bases (Pine Gap and the offshore base in WA). AUKUS was a favourite child of the Morrison Government, developed in secret and adopted by Albanese after a half hour briefing in his first days as Prime Minister.

AUKUS is a shit deal for Australia, for the planet and for places around the globe where the US wants to continue its violent imperialism, whether it’s through land theft by proxy (Palestine), resource theft (Sudan and again, Palestine), or political interference to secure all of the above (Bolivia, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the list goes on). AUKUS also gives the UK a renewed presence in the region and is seen as a provocation particularly to China.

AUKUS was pushed on the Australian public without any transparency. In parallel, so is the NSW and Australian Government’s plans to militarise the Hunter Region. The Hunter Defense Taskforce, led by ex-politician Tim Owen, is handing out government grants to manufacturers and engineering firms across the Hunter to push them to build weapons components.

Newcastle and Port Stephens Council are leasing more land at Newcastle airport designed for weapons manufacturing, including to BAE which has a significant role in the global supply chain for F-35 war planes. Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons company guilty of extensive corporate crimes and involved in multiple war crimes, is also looking to expand its presence.

The Taskforce is hosting a conference in the Hunter Valley in August, with Kevin Rudd Ambassador to the US as special guest. The event, essentially a massive weapons capability marketing expo, is sponsored by Lockheed Martin and local company Varley. Varley has a relationship with some of the most egregious weapons companies on the planet: Northrop Gruman and Lockheed Martin through its supply of ground support components to the F-35s, and Israeli government owned weapons company, Rafael through a joint venture. Rafael make the spike missile that killed Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcom, and has been used in multiple war crimes in Gaza since 2009 (2009, 2014, 2023). Rafael’s sales pitch for its weapons is that they have been “battle proven” on Palestinians. Varley purchased the prototype for the Spike missile from Rafael, thus supporting and funding their war crimes.

This is all being forced on communities in the Hunter, with no consultation and little oversight. Newcastle Council just defeated a Greens notice of motion regarding leasing Council land for the purposes of weapons manufacturing, despite this going against its own policy and in the context of a potential conflict of interest. The Lord Mayor and CEO are both on the board of Newcastle airport.

There is a workforce shortage in the STEM field, a climate crisis and social pressures that require us to direct those skills into renewables, medical technology and innovations in housing and infrastructure. Basically, industries that protect life, not ones that harm life. The flip side of this is that military accounts for at least 6% of global carbon emissions. The planet and its people simply cannot survive increased militarisation.

If you would like to get more involved in taking action against the Hunter Defense Taskforce and companies involved in military related trade, please email Free Palestine Newcastle or message No Weapons for Genocide.  

Palestine Solidarity Conference 2024

Palestine Solidarity Conference 2024 delegates (photo credit: APAN)

Overview

The Palestine Solidarity Conference was held in Naarm (Melbourne) over three days from May 10-12, 2024. 250 delegates were chosen from around Australia to come together with the common goal: To build people power and a coalition for justice. The core principles of: Palestinian led; Expanding solidarity networks with a focus on intersectionality; and Translating grassroots support into political power meant the focus was on powering-up our organising and effectiveness.

One key message was that liberation for Palestine is near, with the question - at what cost? We see the cost in Rafah, across Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine right now with intensified assaults by the Zionist entity, forced starvation and evidence of war crimes including the uncovering of several mass graves within hospitals.

Ayman Qwaider, a specialist in education and advocacy whose sister’s and brother in law’s families were killed in October last year, spoke of the overwhelming feeling of “suffocation” which defines life in occupied Palestine. “Imprisonment, abuse, and violence are everyday. Borders are a big part of life… open, closed, ID cards, separation from siblings. We need to appeal to Israel just to meet other Palestinians”. Mr Qwaider pointed out that there have been 15 uprisings since the 1880’s and that the “Gaza ghetto uprising will be the last one.”

Another key message was that Palestine needs us to get organised, strategic and in for the long haul. Whilst clearly an unbearable cost is being paid by Palestinians, those in the West acting in solidarity must also be prepared to pay a cost. Jordy Silverstein from the Loud Jew Collective spoke of this cost including “risking employment, losing friendships and alienating families”. 

With a focus also on practical strategies and organising frameworks, delegates utilised The Commons Social Change Library resources including the Four Roles in Palestine Solidarity Activism (being the Citizen, Reformer, Rebel and Change Agent). State based groups spent some time developing high level strategy using The Tactic Star and looking at ways to influence Local Government, contribute to the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, and hosting and having conversations about Palestine (we are happy to share these toolkits – just let us know).

In reflecting on the themes and power of the conference, the call to build a strong civil society and mass mobilisation resonated clearly. In the words of Ayman Qwaider, “The Nakba [catastrophe] is ongoing, and the Intifada [shaking off] is also ongoing”.

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions

The Palestine Solidarity Conference held in Naarm (Melbourne) over three days from May 10-12, 2024 included expert panellists and deep dives into the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The movement was endorsed in 2005 by 170 civil society groups across Palestine, after they worked together over twelve months to develop a shared position. The call is for us “to work in an organised and global way, with the same strategy”, said Dr Randa Abdel Fattah.

BDS is a non-violent campaign movement involving targeted boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel’s government, and businesses, organisations, and individuals involved in the apartheid, occupation, and oppression of Palestinians. It is based on the successful South African anti-apartheid boycott movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

Dr Fattah said that: “BDS is world making… It counters a feeling of having no power which is why there is such an attack on it. BDS creates an ethics of care and solidarity... It is revolutionary, and an act of solidarity that even our children can be part of in a way that connects them to what’s happening in the world”.

Professor Nazari Ismail, the Head of BDS Malaysia shared the incredible success of BDS in that country, where there is no economic trade with Israel, Malaysians cannot travel to so-called Israel, and they can only visit occupied Palestine if they are there to assist Palestinians. Last year, with 25,000 petition signatories and in just five days, the Malaysian government banned the Israeli shipping company Zim from Malaysia’s ports. Since then, Indonesia has done the same. This strong stance also draws some push back. The United States Congress has banned BDS, and successive governments have attempted to eliminate BDS leadership since 2016. Professor Ismail said that US representatives were recently sent to Malaysia to “warn” the government and threaten them with sanctions. Fifty Malaysian NGOs sent a memo urging that they stand firm against the US, and they did.

Rand Darwish, who is amongst other things one of the leaders of the University of Sydney student encampment, said that in the context of universities BDS is a two-fold campaign: “It is about divestment, and also about institutional change. For once, they are asking to meet us”.

Weapons manufacturers have insidiously entered tertiary education spaces through sponsorships, research partnerships and placements, including involving Primary School aged children. Ms Darwish said that in calling for divestment from weapons manufacturers the encampments “are relevant to East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Divestment is the bare minimum required to uphold international law. It is simply based on the call to ‘stop bombing kids’”. [You may also like to read the Missiles and Minors Report produced by Teachers for Peace which identifies that children as young as four are exposed to weapons through marketing tactics such as the use of children’s characters and toys].

In a call to get bolder and more ambitious about BDS, speakers noted that campaigns that are considered controversial at the time, such as the boycott of the Sydney Festival due to Israeli government sponsorship, soon become normalised. Apartheid Free Zones, where businesses and institutions commit to BDS until Palestine is liberated, are also now becoming a reality and may be the future of BDS.

Blak-Palestinian solidarity, Jewish-Palestinian solidarity, and countering the weaponisation of antisemitism

“The particles we breathe and the water in our bodies is that of First Nations ancestors. All colonial projects are due to fail because they are not sustainable, but we live on”. These words from Professor Mazim Qumsiyeh, expert in land rights and climate justice, sang out like a gift at the commencement of the Palestinian Solidarity Conference held in Naarm (Melbourne) across May 10-12, 2024. Professor Qumsiyeh calls this time “an existential moment not just for Palestinians but for all humanity”.  

In talking about Blak-Palestinian solidarity, Larissa Baldwin-Roberts (Widjabul Wiabal/Bundjalung woman & Chief Executive Officer at GetUp) said, “Most people don’t know about the history of here or of Palestine, and they come at it as if it’s a debate. We need to be clear, it [the impact of colonisation] is not a debate”.

Delegates heard about the joint organising that is occurring for Palestine rallies and for this year’s Invasion Day rallies. First Nations speakers said, “We need to weave our stories together – the common factor is profit for the West, dispossession for mining and development, massacres. The common goal is land rights and land back”. Jordy Silverstein from the Loud Jew Collective echoed this idea in saying “Zionism wants to dominate and extract and make sure nothing else is possible. As non-Palestinians our responsibility is to live up to our obligations to Palestine and Palestinians”.

The shared experience of racism, violence and incarceration was also highlighted, with the example of the British security company 4GS being a “suffocating” presence at checkpoints in occupied Palestine and also responsible for the 2009 death in Western Australia of Mr Ward whilst in police custody.

Jewish representatives spoke of the need to fight back against Zionism which “also disavows Jewish life, another form of violence and a way to take over political imaginations about what being Jewish is”. They also spoke about the Jewish connection to Palestine, saying “it is like the Christian and Muslim connection to Palestine. This doesn’t give Indonesians the right to colonise Palestine. Palestine belongs to Palestinians”.

Countering weaponised antisemitism was addressed in the context of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions global campaign. Zionists know that BDS is not antisemitic and only use this as a bad faith argument to shut down dissent. Professor Peter Slezak pointed out that none of the companies on the targeted BDS list are Jewish owned.

The message of solidarity was summed up powerfully by Tareen Onus Browne: “Settler colonies learn how to hoard together but oppressed people learn how to resist together” (Tarneen is a Gunditjmara, Bindal, Yorta Yorta person and Torres Strait Islander from Mer and Erub islands).