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.