THE AUKUS submarine decision an “outrageous assault on peace, democracy and vulnerable Australians”, says Sue Wareham, Canberra-based president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War. 

“Unimaginable expenditure – up to $368 billion – has been announced for a single weapons capability, submarines, in a decision that was made behind closed doors and is overflowing with risks, many of which have barely been acknowledged,” she said.

Announced on Tuesday, Australia will command a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines within the next three decades.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision was about strengthening national security and stability in the region.

But Wareham said Albanese has betrayed his own people.

“Vulnerable Australians will suffer even more in order for such largesse to flow to the military-industrial complex,” she said.

“Opposition leader Dutton has already indicated that the NDIS, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Australians with particular needs, might need to be attacked.

“Our healthcare system is in crisis in many areas. Countless thousands of Australians have nowhere to live, and yet our biggest financial investments will be in preparing to join yet another war of choice, this time between the US and China.”

Wareham said the submarines were intended to take part in a nuclear war, despite not being nuclear-armed themselves.

“Such a war would cause unimaginable human and environmental suffering, with Australia possibly being in the firing line,” she said.

“Funding for diplomacy and arms control pales compared to our funding for war-fighting. If, as the PM says, Australia is committed to remaining a non-nuclear weapons state, then the government must sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a step it has previously promised. This is increasingly urgent as some other nations will perceive our intentions differently.”

The submarine decision had been taken, in the name of defending “democracy”, by a tiny handful of people, with not a single Australian outside elite circles – some with vested interests – being consulted and listened to, Wareham said.

“Australians will simply suffer dwindling essential services, and possibly the human and other costs of war, to pay for the decision. That’s how autocracies operate, not democracies.

“Naval nuclear reactors are to be imposed on one of our cities, currently thought to be Wollongong, after zero consultation with the people there. This is a particularly egregious development given the long-standing civil society opposition to nuclear power in this country, opposition based on a well-founded fear of nuclear accident and resultant radioactive contamination.”

And, Wareham said, there were other questions that haven’t even been asked, let alone answered.

“What will be the carbon emissions from this vast submarine-building complex? How will the ramped-up hostility that we are witnessing affect prospects for climate action by the big powers,” she asked.

“And the nuclear waste – still an unresolved and intractable problem with nuclear power. We’re told that the submarines won’t need refuelling for the life of the vessel, but that is about 30 years. What then? Will Australia become the dumping ground for high-level nuclear waste? Already the US and the UK have stores of submarine nuclear waste that they don’t know what to do with.

“Twenty years ago, the three nations now comprising AUKUS conducted an illegal invasion of Iraq, leaving a humanitarian disaster on a huge scale. AUKUS is the ‘coalition of the willing’ rebranded. Rather than gearing up for the next war, those three nations should pause to reflect the costs of war.”

Australia to command eight nuclear subs in $368b deal