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Robin Taubenfeld – Submission 341

427 ACF

339 Olivetta Harris

Robin Taubenfeld - Submission 341

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Michael Pilbrow – Submission 345

Gareth Smith – Submission 344

Michael Pilbrow

I have a very brief submission made up of a single recommendation. RECOMMENDATION: The Australian alliance with the United States should reflect the spirit and the letter of the ANZUS treaty where each signatory “recognises that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on any of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes.” This would mean that the alliance would be about the defence of Australia and the United States when either country faces an armed attacked on their own soil. It would mean the alliance could not be used to draw Australia into offensive wars in other parts of the world. Australia's recent experience in joining the United States in wars that have had nothing to do with the defence of either country has been disastrous - the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq wars caused massive loss of life of soldiers and civilians, cost huge amounts of money, contributed to the mental health burden of our veterans and were disastrously unsuccessful in achieving the objectives set by the United States (which in hindsight look ridiculous as they involved the ...
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Elizabeth Moore – Submission 343

Gareth Smith

Australia is in a unique strategic situation being bordered by the Indian and Pacific oceans. The US is not alone in "pivoting" towards the Pacific which is rapidly becoming a military hotspot given the struggle for dominance between China and itself. Nuclear India has an impressive blue water navy with which it is projecting military force and, given its tension with both Pakistan and China (nuclear powers), threatens regional stability. Australia in concert with the US, as usual, adopts a bellicose response to China and phrases like "the drums of war" are aired from the citadels of power. Australia is uniquely placed to establish a southern hemisphere equivalent to SIPRI which would be a bi-regional resource centre for non-violent conflict resolution, peace research, human rights and humanitarian law. Having such a centre would broadcast Australia's commitment to non-militaristic problem solving and would be a resource to which regional nations could make recourse. It would offer mediator's services to nations in dispute and inform government on ways to build confidence and trust and how to achieve negotiated settlements. The current Afghan debacle and that of Iraq before it should hammer home the fallacy of resorting to military "solutions" ...
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Joy Taylor – Submission 342

The next 5-10 years are critical if we are to avoid ecological collapse and out of control climate change which will in turn likely lead to more wars as countries become less stable. The military industrial complex contributes a significant amount to fossil fuel emissions. Military spending is also rising significantly and reducing the amount we have to spend on conservation and alternative energy programs as well as much needed social and health services. A clear priority is for Australia to work with first nation communities to address the damage caused by colonisation. This must start with us signing the Uluru statement and taking the lead from Aboriginal communities rather than dictating to them. Significant investment is required across multiple areas to address gaps in health employment , education homelessness and overcrowding and other critical areas for Aboriginal people. . Australia must also invest in a sustainable recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic - noting that t we will need to be responding to ongoing climate changed severe weather events and bushfires over the coming years. We can not achieve all these aims whilst military spending continues to increase. The arms industry is sadly growing and is fuelling instability and ...
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Susan Evelyn Pilbrow – Submission 340

I am a long term resident of the NT. I live in Mparntwe / Alice Springs in the shadow of Pine Gap - a key US military facility. I am very concerned about the Australia / US alliance. I am very concerned about the roles of Pine Gap. As a community and as a country we are increasingly more vulnerable. I fully support the submission and recommendations made by Alice Springs Peace Action Think Tank (ASPATT). I thank them and ICAN for their work ...
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Olivetta Harris – Submission 339

I am horrified at the level of Government Spending on Defence particularly because it is tied to the influence of the USA. There are so many needs in the community e.g. education, hospitals, medical and dental services. There is also a great need for Overseas Aid (the budget for which has been cut) and a very great need for humane support for refugees - particularly in the light of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan which makes Australia’s involvement a waste of money and a tragic waste of lives ...
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Dave Arkins, Andy Alcock, Bob Hanney – Submission 333

The recent Land Forces 21 expo held at the Brisbane Convention Centre in June this year is a very potent example of the creeping militarization of Australian society. The congratulatory tone of AMDA Foundation Limited, the organisers of the expo, in their post-expo media blurb speaks volumes regarding the support and cooperation given to this event by the various federal and state governments which actually act as buying and selling agents for the various contributing defence (aka armaments) industries. "LAND FORCES 2021 attracted 12,766 attendances from industry, government and defence over its three days, with 718 companies participating and 26 conferences, symposia and seminars. ......... Feedback from the very first day showed that the Australian defence industry was excited to be back to face-to-face engagement and renewing business relationships in person following the constraints of COVID-19. AMDA Foundation is grateful for the support of the Minister for Defence Industry, Melissa Price, and Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr, for their personal commitment to the event and their extensive engagement with industry in the exhibition halls. Indeed, the strength of support from the Department of Defence was evident and the participation by all State and Territory Governments demonstrated the national ...
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Treena Lenthall – Submission 332

SUBMISSION TO IPAN’s INQUIRY into The Case for an Independent and Peaceful Australia What are the costs and consequences of Australia’s involvement in US-led wars and the US Alliance? FROM: Dave Arkins Secretary of Australia West Papua Association SA INC (AWPA SA) Member of Australia East Timor Friendship Assoc SA INC (AETFA SA) Andy Alcock Member of AETFA SA Member of AWPA SA Bob Hanney Member of AETFA SA Member of AWPA SA INTRODUCTION AWPA SA and AETFA SA are two solidarity groups that have been working in SA for the peoples of West Papua and Timor-Leste respectively. Both groups also work in solidarity with other groups in Australia and overseas that represent peoples who have suffered genocide and human rights abuses at the hands of the Indonesian military (TNI) since the early 1960s. Both associations view the Indonesian army (TNI) and the Indonesian police (POLRI) as major terrorist organisations in Australia’s region of the world given the crimes that they have committed against the peoples of West Papua, East Timor (now Timor-Leste), Aceh and regions within Indonesia itself eg Maluku - ie including against it’s own people. We believe that Australians working for peace need to be working to ...
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Michael Pembroke – Submission 331

I write this at the time of hearing the news of the Taliban capturing Kabul following the troop withdrawal of Afghanistan. After two decades and ten billion dollars of taxpayers’ money, we are observing the collapse of our government’s efforts and that of the US and its other allies as we wait for further horrors to unfold in the wake of this military failure. This was a war that was opposed from the start. Our government pursued a US agenda for war in Afghanistan despite mass opposition which resulted in the death of thousands of Afghan civilians and defence personnel. We have seen rising numbers of our returned soldiers with PTSD and recent revelations of a morally corrupt culture in the SAS. It is time to rethink our foreign policy and learn the lessons from past interventions. The redistribution of taxpayer money by the government defines our nation’s priorities and values. The defense budget now stands at $45 billion - a 15% increase from last year and 2.1% of GDP. This expenditure indicates that we value militarism and not peace. We value war and not education and health. We value violence and not our environment. We value threats to our ...
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Lesley Jeffreys – Submission 329

The people of Australia deserve an independent, worldly and balanced approach by our political leaders to issues of foreign policy and military aggression. Pragmatism, strategic realism and sensitivity, not moral judgment and binary analysis, are better guides to appropriate global conduct. Australia's leaders have too often failed to demonstrate the independence of national character on which we pride ourselves. All too frequently, we have slavishly followed the United States into unnecessary or unjustified conflicts, weakening our independence and embarrassing our nation. History will regard the past 75 years as an exceptional period of wars, invasion and interference instigated by the United States in its own perceived security and economic interests. Most of the interventions have failed in the short term and all have been counter productive in the long term. They have resulted in the loss of millions upon millions of civilian lives, generated resentment, created instability and almost invariably made a bad situation worse. America's interventions have not made the world a safer or better place; they have not been the actions of a responsible global state. Australia's leaders should be clear-eyed about the mixed legacy of the United States, wary of the soundness of its judgments and often ...
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Christopher Crouch – Submission 328

Matilda Byrne – Submission 325

This short submission raises the idea that one of the consequences of the Australia/US military alliance is that the associated military and industrial infrastructural links associated with the military alliance are also accompanied by the import of US media structures that create emotional and conceptual links with the US. Whilst more intangible than armed troops, media products also occupy minds. These US media and cultural links ultimately dis-embed the community from their local social interactions and embeds them in a fictional culture. Like all cultural speculation there is a lack of easily accessible data to back up claims like the above, but there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that this is a neglected aspect of social research. Perhaps the most symbolic of these observations is the fact that so many Australians phone 911 (the US emergency number) in times of emergency that Telstra has an automatic diversion to 000. (1) The reinvigoration of military links with the USA that occurred under the Howard government saw associated economic links culminating in the The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) which came into effect on 1 January 2005. Of particular significance to my argument was the relaxing of tariffs on US ...
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UAW Queensland- Submission 324

Australia has long been an ally of the United States. After World War I and II, where Australia was allied with the US, the ANZUS Treaty codified a commitment to collective security between the US, Australia and New Zealand. Australia and the US also share positive trade relations. Gravitating towards countries with shared heritage and language, similar values, democratic systems of government is by no means problematic and many would say this alliance has benefited Australia. However, the nature of the relationship between the United States and Australia, and the US-Australia alliance, is less of a partnership in achieving common foreign policy and defence goals, and more a case of Australia following the lead of the US time and time again — from a simple remark, or policy position on an emerging issue through to committing our troops to war. It is evident the relationship based on this alliance has influenced Australia's thinking and choices with regard to defence and foreign policy matters. This submission draws attention to the decisions to enter wars, as in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the influence of the alliance in this and the associated costs; human, political and financial. History shows Australia entering into wars ...
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Andrew Fullarton – Submission 321

Union of Australian Women (Qld) submission to IPAN’S People’s Inquiry: Exploring the case for an independent and peaceful Australia Union of Australian Women (Qld) (UAW) The Union of Australian Women (Queensland) was formed in 1950 in response to the economic, social and political issues confronting women at the time. Since then this organisation has worked actively towards: • the rights of women; • the rights of children to life, happiness and education, and • safeguarding peace. Peace has always been at the forefront of the UAW agenda. The UAW views peace as a precursor to gender justice as it is women and children who are disproportionately impacted by war. This commitment has involved UAW in many campaigns, with activities ranging from letter writing, and petitions to peaceful demonstrations. Introduction The UAW holds concerns across all the IPAN inquiry focus areas but wishes to make brief comments that relate to the following themes: social and community; political (and democratic) rights; and environment and climate, drawing from its long history of struggle and advocacy in these areas. UAW believes that fundamentally the Australia-US alliance does not serve Australian women and children well. The costs and consequences of Australia’s involvement in US-led wars ...
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Dr Ka-Sing Chua – Submission 319

We in Australia must end our military alliance with the U.S, by terminating the ANZUS treaty and the Force Posture Agreement and requiring the U.S to remove all its troops and military installations from our territory. We should not be subservient to the U.S or any other foreign power and need a truly independent foreign policy based on peaceful conflict resolution, mutual respect, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, and with trading relations based on mutual benefit. The U.S-Australia alliance has resulted in us following the U.S into one disastrous war after another, from Korea to Afghanistan, and being more or less forced to purchase overpriced and unsuitable U.S military equipment. It inevitably means that an enemy of the U.S automatically becomes an enemy of Australia and makes us a target for retaliation in the event of war between the U.S and its numerous enemies. The ADF must cease to be an expeditionary force for U.S Imperialism and must instead be reconstituted and reorganised for the territorial defence of our land, based on mobilisation of our people, in line with a defence policy based on armed neutrality ...
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Judy Hemming – Submission 315

Military Agencies and Wars are the worst culprits of human disasters and climate changes. I am horrified to learn that military agencies and wars around the world supported by their perspective governments are the main culprits of the climate changes and human disasters. I search for evidence and there are aplenty. But the majority of the global citizens are being blindfolded from the facts in many ways. Some are ignorant not of their own choosing but because they do not have the education, the tool and opportunity to search for or reach for the truth. Many are being brainwashed by their perspective governments assisted with their privileged uses of their propaganda machines at their disposals. I will list a few here but I am sure many of our submissions will touch on this issue as well. The wars created by these military agencies dating back to the origin of human civilization in the East and the West, have caused enormous sufferings to our human beings and their environments. The war crimes they have committed are mind boggling if we were to list them from Roman Empire in the West to the Chin Dynasty in the East. I will leave that ...
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The Australian Government needs to reassess its agreement that allows the US Marines to “rotate” through Darwin, especially in the light of the exapansionist nature of this agreement. The cause is straightforward: sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape against female members of the Australian Defence Force. And these occur at at time when such offences are have reached epidemic proportions in the US and the Congress has mandated radical reforms. Recent reports by SBS News, and subsequently analysed on this site by Bevan Ramsden, have uncovered and highlighted the Australian Government’s desultory response, including a refusal to exercise its duty of care to those who are prepared to ‘defend and serve their country.’ In summary form, these sources narrate complaints relating to three recent sexual harassment and assaults on female ADF members serving in Darwin alongside the US marine rotational contingency. Under any circumstances, civil or military, these behaviours are unacceptable; when they concern the actions by personnel of a foreign military presence on Australian territory, they are a travesty of what the alliance relationship with the US is held to be. Accordingly, given that the complaints are of a serious criminal nature, it is imperative that they are investigated ...
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PASA- Submission 312

Peter Moore – Submission 311

Reyvi Marinas

The Philippines Australia Solidarity Association (PASA) wishes to make a submission on the ‘People’s Inquiry: Exploring the Case for an Independent and Peaceful Australia, What are the costs and consequences of Australia’s involvement in US-led wars and the US-alliance?’. PASA is a Melbourne-based solidarity group that promotes peace, justice and human rights, focusing on issues in the Philippines and Australia. Since its formation in 2003, PASA’s main focus has been the issue of human rights in the Philippines, particularly the alarming number of political killings since that time. PASA’s continuing campaign on stop the killings and Australian mining issues in the Philippines have involved raising awareness through forums, film showings and vigils, as well as lobbying Australian politicians and Philippine government officials. The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) invites individuals and organisations to make submissions in relation to each of the eight broad areas of the Inquiry including: Impact on First Nation’s Peoples; Economic; Social and Community; Environment and Climate Change; Military and Defence; Foreign Policy; Political (including Democratic Rights); and Unions and Workers’ Rights. In this submission, PASA intends to address the Military and Defence focus area regarding the impact of US-Australia military alliance on peace, democracy and ...
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Rees Duncan Barrett – Submission 310

I would like Australia to make independent choices about its future, and to choose to live peacefully. To do this, Australia needs to be an upstanding global citizen, such as leading climate change, providing decent foreign aid, standing up for justice, and treating all people including refugees with compassion. By doing good, we can encourage others to do good, increase our reputation globally, and act through global institutions such as the UN to promote positive change. These actions would likely be far more economically efficient and economically productive that the alternative, since investing in a better and more equal society will be highly revitalising. The military is a major source of emissions, and Australia is massively exposed to climate change risks and threats. It is in all Australians interests (including future Australians) to minimise our's and others' military interests ...
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Barbara Hartley – Submission 308

75 years ago, the Australia-US Alliance was vital to Australia’s survival as a free and independent nation. However, times have changed and now dependence on that alliance jeopardises Australia’s survival and development as a mature member of the global community of nations. In 1945, Australia and the US played leading roles in the formation of the United Nations because it was seen as the only way to avoid future global devastation such as that wreaked by the Second World War. Through the UN it was recognised that peace was not achievable through the old patterns of competing alliances but rather through multilateralism, the rule of international law, human rights and sustainable development of all nations for all of humanity: “We The Peoples”. Sadly, the wisdom, leadership and vision showed in 1945 has been eroded due to the complacent and misguided sense of security that the majority of Australians still gain through holding onto the past. With such a mindset, we are easily swayed by the self-serving jingoism of some current politicians and led down a self-destructive, binary path. It is disturbing to hear the current government denigrating and undermining the UN, seemingly happy to follow the lead of Trumpism. Our ...
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Léonie M Ebert – Submission 306

This submission is based on the ideas presented in the 2020 Clifford D. Connor publication entitled The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump. In this work, Connor examines ‘the U.S. economy 's addiction to military spending’ arguing that this ‘distorts and deforms science by making it overwhelmingly subservient to military interests.’ As the sub-title of Connor’s discussion suggests, these military interests have infiltrated political systems until we now have the terrifying spectacle (this sounds dramatic, but it is definitely not) of everyday politics – designed to provide services and support the citizenry – completely intertwined with the industrial-military complex. In this context, the myth of ‘commercial in confidence’ – fundamentally capitalists wanting to have information all to themselves in contrast to the pre-war, pre-atomic science notion (see Elizabeth Tynan, Atomic Thunder, 2016) of all scientific information being what we would now refer to as ‘creative commons’ – has infected political decisions. As a result, it is now almost impossible to access either the background or substance of political decision making across all areas. This is particularly the case in the realm of military-related matters. The current environment in which China – which indeed presents a certain set of ...
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Michael Stilwell Flynn – Submission 305

It is essential for Australia to have a humanitarian refugee policy and so i would like to forward a 5 Point Plan developed by #TURNBACKTOHUMANITY FIVE POINT PLAN fore your consideration. I do this because I believe this plan embodies a fair and just Australia. The Plan is as follows:- 1. Immediate release and settlement for all those suffering at our hands 2. Immigration detention should be a last resort and strictly no more than 30days 3. Raise the refugee intake substantially 4. Expand safe and just passage for asylum seekers to Australia, with no punishment based on means of arrival. 5. Give permanent protection visas and citizenship with full rights including family reunion. I belong to the Graham F Smith Peace Foundation which has sent in a submission which I support wholeheartedly. This is my addition to make sure refugees and asylum seekers are treated with dignity and humanity. this will become even more important as a result of Climate Change ...
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David Perkins – Submission 304

Nuclear weapons are a threat to all of us and the US alliance makes us a target if China is at war with the US. So we need to abolish the weapons and change our spend away from the US plan for war with China. We must seek world peace and spend the defence money on climate action and the pandemic ...
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Lorel Thomas – Submission 303

This is a personal statement that I am making to the IPAN Inquiry that is exploring the case for an independent and peaceful Australia. I have been opposed to war and warlike preparations for most of my life and although my parents, as Christians, were influential in laying the moral foundations for this position, the more influential and persuasive reason is the lessons taught in history at the state schools I attended. Let me repeat that. History lessons taught in secondary schools convinced me that war was a catastrophic failure of relations between states; and while WWI involved a tragic loss of life of combatants, WWII swept away whole civilian populations in what had become total war. Family Background My great uncle’s name, Harvey James Cook is engraved on the Memorial wall in Canberra. His death in a machine gun unit at a young age on the battlefields in Europe in the Great War (“the war to end wars”) has reverberated through the generations in my family. My father was born the year after war’s end and was named after Harvey. My younger brother, Harvey, also took his name. We have a small wood and glass display case that has ...
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As a member of the British Empire, Australia followed Great Britain into the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion, ignoring the rights of the indigenous people and supporting colonizing powers. Australia again followed Britain to war as WWI raged across Europe. The immediate catalyst for this conflict was the assassination of the Austrian archduke Ferdinand. Behind this act though the complex forces of militarism, imperialism, nationalism and alliances were in play. Australia’s alliance to Britain sealed the fate of the 60,00 killed and the 156,000 wounded, gassed or taken prisoner. The shortsighted exclusion of the German Government in peace talks and the punitive Treaty of Versailles sowed the seeds for WWII. This horrendous conflict needs no description, but suffice it to say that Australian troops again followed Britain into conflict and on the entry into the war of the United States of America, supported both major powers. In one of the many statements about the need to learn from history, Winston Churchill wrote “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Sadly, it appears that successive Australian governments have failed to learn from history and continue to follow a major global power, into war. Now closely ...
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Lesley Joy Agar – Submission 299

Almost hidden in enlarged Australian defence budgets in general and the recent $270 billion ten-year military upgrade specifically, lie references to equip existing US-led satellite systems with enhanced facilities. The US-led facilities form the basis of regional intelligence-gathering hosted by the Australian government. The facilities, furthermore, have placed Australia in a front-line position for US-led regional foreign policy with all the dangers and implications which that particular diplomatic position has involved. ***** A recent announcement from the Pentagon the US military have begun testing an advanced artificial intelligence system for faster analysis of intelligence was provided minimal coverage in mainstream Australian media outlets. The system, referred to as a global information dominance experiment (GIDE), is not about new ways of intelligence-gathering and will use existing satellite systems, radar facilities and various underwater systems which are already in place. (1) The GIDE system is primarily an AI computer program with the capacity to analyse vast quantities of intelligence for military application with the specific intention of 'exploiting the mass of data, beyond any human ability to absorb, to predict how the enemy might react by examining patterns and changes'. (2) Once alerted to what are regarded as significant factors military commanders ...
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Kieran Walsh – Submission 298

I was one of the million people who marched many times in Australia to protest against Australia joining America to invade Iraq. The fact that we were right Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction yet Australia was embroiled in that disgusting invasion against the wishes of the thinking people of Australia I believe caused a mass disengagement with politics among the general population and now we see the most corrupt federal government in Australia, which I believe stems from people who have disengaged with politics because our voices were ignored and Australia followed meekly behind USA into the Iraq war and so the vile government we now have stems from people not knowing what the government are doing. All the public housing and livable income support and funding for Indigenous programs health etc etc that could have lifted up our country and was wasted on this terrible war. Then Australia followed America into Afghanistan and made more mess in other people's country. There are many of us that don't believe following bullyboy America into wars is ethical,or intelligent. Allowing America to have military bases in Australia just makes us a target. There is a better way! Stop wasting ...
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David Morgan – Submission 297

I agree with, and totally support the policies and reports have seen in the messages I have received by email and post over the last 5 years. I don't have the time or inclination to go into any greater detail than this. I hope that this is enough to make some difference to the overall cause ...
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Janette Morgan – Submission 296

What are the costs and consequences of our alliance with the US? Economic costs are astronomical with the purchase of military equipment and armaments that are mostly cloaked in secrecy and acquired from the major party in the alliance. The alliance is not made up of equals. Being hoodwinked into believing that we have shared values with the U.S.A. These values include the American Dream, nationalism, independence, individualism, self-reliance, material wealth, equal opportunity, and competition. This may have appeared the case to a naïve immature country in the 1950s, but now is patently clear to mean greed, ruthlessness, ultra-nationalism, violence, dishonesty, racism and secrecy. We are now considered internationally as a lapdog of the U.S.A. or at least the southern-most state of the U.S.A. Internally, we have become diplomatically lazy. We have dropped out of caring for our Pacific neighbours unless China shows an interest and we need fruit pickers. We have become more secretive internally with secret trials and imprisonment. We wage a war on whistleblowers, leakers and investigative journalists – in fact anyone who disagrees with the government policy is labelled a traitor. We now have indefinite detention and a government who deliberately creates fear for its citizens ...
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Kerry Davies – Submission 295

I am a member of Vintage Reds, a group of retired union activists in Canberra. It was at a Vintage Red meeting that I was introduced to IPAN and resolved to devote some time to a submission to your important inquiry. Background: As a child during WW2, I thought it was exciting to go to the wharf and to wave off my uncles who were going to war. I remember all the soldiers on the ship and all the streamers that were thrown down to us, stretching and then ultimately breaking as the ship departed. Little did I know! I witnessed nine members of my mother’s and father’s family become directly involved in the war. The youngest of these, mother’s youngest brother, Lloyd aged 19, suffocated and died whilst tank training on Fraser Island. I can still see my beautiful mother stumble when she got the news. Two other brothers of my father became POWs. Greg was in Germany and Jack was in Changi. Greg was captured in Crete and went to a series of POW camps in Germany; he was the luckiest in the family and didn’t display obvious trauma post war. Can you imagine for a moment my ...
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Jessica Western – Submission 294

I do not think that it is in the interest of any Australian to continue to follow America into illegal wars . I want to see American bases removed from Australia. too many Australians have died for no benefit to Australia or the countries we invade, only to keep America in control and with power over whatever they wish to take from the country we invade. Australians are tired of pointless wars, and saddened by the destruction we cause in any country that does not want to bow down to America ...
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Erin Kenny – Submission 289

I do not support wars of aggression. Australia's history of throwing itself behind US-led military engagements, including violent occupation of overseas territories, is shameful. Nor do I support our dangerously extensive military spending. There is a lack of transparency around the economic and political motivations behind these choices that greatly angers me, quite aside from the staggering toll military engagement takes on the regions, environments and people involved. I urgently entreat our future Australia to move spending priorities away from the military and towards more generative and regenerative causes, such as local and global environmental rehabilitation and more resilient social welfare and support systems, that would begin to put resources back into the areas and people our military has so greatly depleted. This is not a case of 'perhaps we can do both'. Significant military activity is dangerous, unethical, and completely at odds with any opportunity for a stable and peaceful future for Australia ...
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Ashly Campbell – Submission 288

I am concerned by the US-Australia alliance and feel that Australia has made immoral and damaging decisions (particularly regarding military action and the environment) due to the alliance. We are in a stable situation and do not need protection from the US, yet continue to be dragged into wars the US starts. I also feel that our lack of climate action and reluctance to pressure the US into similar action could be helped by an end to the alliance. I would like to see Australia moving in a more independent direction, without relying on the US and bowing to their pressures when it comes to international politics ...
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Rebecca Hausler – Submission 287

I believe a majority of Australians feel that Australia should be doing much more to resolve international tensions in a peaceful, co-operative way. In the International Year of Peace (1986) I helped with the national tour of the double decker Peace Bus when it was in SA visiting a wide range of schools, community events, workplaces etc. I was particularly impressed by the concern shown by school age children. Since then the horrors of war have become obvious to a huge number of people who have been affected by war - directly or indirectly - refugees and their descendants, ex-service people and their families and Australians in contact with families overseas in war zones. 1. Australia should join the significant number of other countries which do not have a military alliance with the USA, China or Russia. If the major military powers have less allies, there is less of a chance they will start a war, big or small. 2. Australia should reduce its military spending and encourage other countries to do the same. 3. We must recognise there can be no lasting peace without justice. Inequalities between nations and within nations are increasing. We need to consult communities at ...
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Christopher Hanson – Submission 274

As a researcher into the Pacific Theatre of WWII, I am concerned about how little Australia's policies seem to have shifted over the last 75+ years, despite the drastic changes seen in geo-politics, economics, and technologies the world over. Our geographic position is within the Asia Pacific region whose nations provide vital economic and political stability for Australia. However, regardless of the major changes in the region, particularly during the last two decades, it seems that Australian foreign policies are still firmly rooted in maintaining "old friendships" with several key countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including the US ...
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I am a young scientist and mathematician with a keen interest in securing a sustainable future for all people on Earth. I, like many young people, see myself as a global citizen and I am extremely conscious of the major problems that all countries, including Australia, must address urgently. I strongly urge the Australian government to drastically reduce its spending on defence and military, and to instead immediately direct strong funding to renewable energy, pollution elimination, health and education. I form this advice with my scientific and mathematical background in mind, and I cannot stress enough how urgently the Australian government needs to take these actions. It is absurd that the federal government's spending on defence is of a comparable magnitude to its spending on education. This is even more disturbing when keeping in mind the recently announced additional $270 billion to expand Australia's military. In 2021 the world is more interconnected than ever before and we have surpassed the age of military warfare between developed nations. Like many other young people, I do not want to see Australia continue to use its military to follow the United States into wars that are not in the best interests of Australians ...
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ASLA- Submission 273

Lynette Amaterstein – Submission 270

Adela Brent

This is a submission on behalf of Australia Solidarity with Latin America. As Latin Americans now living in Australia, we want to live in a peaceful country. We believe it is our right. We also believe it is possible but we need to make it possible. We realize how much the Australian government is spending on weapons and its alliance to the United States government. A government that is considered the number 1 enemy of the world and the main producer of weapons that cause mass destruction. The Australian government being a complicit of a government that disregards human rights is an issue of great concern and not a pathway to peace in our country. How can the Australian government be considered a democratic government when it is participating in the violation of human rights in other parts of the world and supporting a government that violates those rights to keep control and domination over world natural resources? As Latin Americans, we would like to mention the situation of Cuba. The United States government has been imposing an illegal and immoral economic blockade against Cuba for more than 60 years now. This criminal blockade has been condemned by the UN ...
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Colin Apelt – Submission 269

I am a concerned citizen who does not want to see Australia dragged into a possible war with China. I saw the terrible cost of the Vietnam war on young Australian soldiers who were sent to fight there. Australia's economy is struggling now with the effects of corona virus, so we don't need the economic impact of a possible war. Australia needs peace not war ...
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Gill H. Boehringer – International Association of People’s Lawyers – Submission 268

Australia's military alliance with USA has caused increasing and vast amounts of resources being directed to weapons and systems that are designed for aggressive warfare and not for appropriate national defence. It has compromised our independence and has restricted severely our ability to act for peace. The alliance has made Australia a collaborator in war crimes both through direct involvement in the invasion and devastation of Afghanistan and Iraq and through the use of the installations at Pine Gap for direction of drone strikes against civilian populations ...
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Anne Catherine Sutheerland – Submission 264

My basic concern is that Australia is in great danger because of its historic practice of serving the wishes of a greater, world dominant power. the historical record is clear. First it was the UK, latterly the USA. In the future it could be China. Such a subservient relation has and would continue to have serious negative impacts on our security but also on our culture. Australia should become, for the first time, a country of honor and dignity, based in its independence from foreign alignments. It should seek to have the international standing and respect that has been gained by a country such as Switzerland. Free, sovereign and determinedly independent. Being "deputy sheriff" to the USA is a shameful role to play. Australian society will be dramatically transformed, its culture enriched and its security upgraded by being, and be seen to be, a sovereign, independent and peaceful nation. To be such, we should sever the Constitutional ties with the United Kingdom, and commence the process of disentangling ourselves from the formal and informal ties that make us an "ally", always subordinate, to the Big Sheriff ...
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Julie Anne Hart – Submission 261

Australia's & other countries' militeries are bombing innocent migrating Whales, Tuna & other fish & in Queensland & in Oceans all around the World totally destroying our Planet with your childish war games. You are also trying to impose your bigotry on other countries by trying to bomb them into submission, spreading toxic vegetation killing chemicals so they cannot hide under trees to get away from your aggression & giving both their children & the your landforces there childrenwith disabilities they do not deserve. It is insane to continue in this wayYour kids do not deserve this ...
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Chris Knight – Submission 260

“The US does not represent the world. It only represents the government of the United States” Spoken by Chinese diplomat Yang Ji, in Anchorage this year. This timely sentence, is a relief to Australians who strive to break free from the negative foreign influence that America imposes on us, its so-called friend. Australia is an independent country, yet apparently too afraid to stand up to American coercion and interference, particularly in military adventurism. Does Australia have any moral courage left to learn to say ‘No’ to America ? Does the US now assume it can speak on behalf of Australia? Is America and the Pentagon relentlessly positioning itself within Australia in preparation for a Hot War with our regional and trading neighbour China? I ask these questions on behalf of the emerging generations of humans and for the bio-security of all life on our home planet Earth. I have this theory: America is suffering paranoia following 76 years of guilt for its Nuclear bombing of two large Japanese cities; Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought an abrupt end to World War 2. The post war ‘baby boomers’ and all the new generations since, have also suffered this ancestral guilt despite being ...
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Harold Wright Johnson – Submission 259

As a global citizen I have always believed in We The Peoples of this World and the UN Charter to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Sadly we have seen these principles eroded over the decades with more war mongering and conflicts that have devastated countries, communities, infrastructure and ultimately the collateral damage of the death, damage dysfunction and dispossession of millions of people around the world. These conflicts have often been led by the US Government. Australians are peaceful people who love their country and in particular our environment. The ongoing consequences of our Alliance Agreement with the US has resulted in more loss of lives and for those that have returned from these conflicts severe PTSD and other illnesses and injuries. War is part of the US economic strategy and similar to other countries the actual expenditure far exceeds the investment into finding peaceful pathways and solutions for people to live and work together. We only have One Planet and the ongoing impacts of War is destroying the planet and millions of people who no longer have a safe place to live to work and to raise their families. With the advances in nuclear technology - ...
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Jo Errey – Submission 254

I am grateful that still in Australia today I have the opportunity to make a submission. Impact on First Nations' Peoples. First Nations' Peoples have lived in Australia for 60,000 years and consider their land, that we now occupy, to be their body. Like all people, like all animal species, they have four basic needs- clean, carbon and covid-constrained AIR, unpolluted WATER, uncontaminated SOIL and SPECIES DIVERSITY- the Web of Life on which all life depends. Under Native Title, land in Queensland has been returned to our First Nations' People and yet where military exercises are now occurring on their land they do not have access to their land. Will there be on-going damage to their water and their soil in this part of Queensland due to the use of PFATT fire retardant ? They do not know. They do not know if any of the temporary occupiers of their land care about what happens to them and their sacred land. Social and Community. How socially-minded and beneficial to the community is an ethos that lauds individual rights over community responsibilities,"those who give it a go, get a go" in preference to support for those in genuine need for an ...
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Judith Bongiorno – Submission 245

The US Alliance undermines Australia’s independence as a sovereign nation. Successive Australian Governments are under the illusion that we need to come under the umbrella of a strong military protector of the United States which in turn enjoys its junior partner’s strategic advantage as a gateway to the Indo-Pacific region. The interoperability of US and Australian defence systems both with weapons procurement and US bases on our soil is very convenient for the US objectives as a major power in the region. It makes it difficult to separate ourselves from US foreign policy. The 2,500 US marines stationed in Darwin was a decision made without the consultation of the Australian parliament or wider Australian community involvement. The illusory belief that the US will come to our defence if we are ever under attack is unproven. In fact the opposite is more likely to be the case. Due to our Alliance, countries which are enemies of the US are likely to regard us with hostility. With the exception of Japanese attack on our soil during WW2 for the purpose of intercepting telecommunications, Australia has been an accomplice with imperial powers of the British followed by the US in invading other countries ...
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Don Longo – Submission 244

I support a peaceful future and note some pronouncements made by those in leadership in this country are a concern. The ADF has secret arrangements with the US as our ally which leaves most of us in the dark. It also needs to be conceded that the pivoting in recent times by China is not helpful. For this reason I hope that skillful diplomatic leaders will step up in Australia, the US, South East Asia and China ...
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Sandra Moxon Beck – Submission 239

The ‘drums of war’ are again being beaten by our conservative politicians and their subservient mandarins of the public service. And the public is being given pretexts for beating the drums reminiscent of Cold War rhetoric. This is a dangerous and unacceptable strategy. Australia is again blindly following US interests and related international policy against China. As a country we have become remarkably tolerant of convenient lies told to us by our allies and repeated ad nauseam by Australia’s supine politicians. It is a sad thought, but perhaps we even prefer them to inconvenient truths and want to avoid the effort required to challenge the half-truths we are being told and the propaganda we are being fed. Why do we trust our politicians? Why are we not demanding the use of diplomacy to resolve disputes rather than applauding the rattling of sabres? Are we just deceiving ourselves about what little remains of our democracy? More to the point, why indeed are we falling in line with US foreign policy at all when its history is peppered with fabrications and deceit in order to provoke and justify war and neo-colonial supremacy? There are plenty of examples from the past:- In 2019, ...
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Peter Robert Dwyer – Submission 219

I am 81 years old. My father died in July 1945 as a result of overwork as a doctor on the home front. I lost 2 great uncles in WW1 and a 3rd returned with shell-shock and never recovered, I lost an uncle in WW2 and a 2nd uncle never became the man he was before WW2, I met my first 'displaced persons' in abt 1953, I saw the ruins of their lives. because Australia was then a 'kinder country' most of those persons went on to make successful lives in Australia, now we are treating refugees and asylum seekers as if they are enemies. We must learn a different way, the world will likely never survive another war, it would be catastrophic, not just because inflation has been allowed to escalate beyond any reasonable hope for recovery after war. the millions spent on war could be redirected to help under-developed countries and our own nation t improve in areas which need improvement. This is all so patently obvious that I will say no more ...
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Prof. Peter Alan Stanley – Submission – 406

Due to my open mind & studies in both Spirituality & ancient & modern history. Plus knowledge of the environment can see the huge negative changes in the environment even though I live in the ACT most of the time. We are all souls that are capable of being immortal if we give up the VICES. That's why the World has become Visious from the word Vice with lust the worst Vice!! I know the beginning from the Golden Age of 1250 years of peace no wars, till the silver age if 1250 years when the Buddha & Mohammad was born, till the copper age now the end of the Iron age , the Confluence Age of great changes & the War no one wants due to the VICES especially GREED. The only thing any of us can do is go to a plant based diet & become pure & karmateet so we can practice being Bodilessness & soul consciousness so we go to God at the time of Destruction ...
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174 Prospects for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

I am an historian of Australia's military history. Although employed by a university, I make this submission as an individual. Since 1901, Australia has become involved in a dozen overseas conflicts; all of them as part of either the British empire and commonwealth or as part of the American alliance. While some of those conflicts concerned Australia's interests directly, most did not. While there were explicable historical reasons for Australia's participation in most conflicts, I believe that the era when Australia was committed to war because of its subservience to other nations should have ended. In the future, if Australia is to be an independent nation, it must retain the right to decide whether to go to war, and not be committed in advance because of an entangling alliance. In that all of its wars hitherto have been in association with either or both Britain and the United States, it makes little sense to me that we should once again be bound to those nations' decisions. The American wars which Australia has embarked since 1962 especially should enjoin caution. Under the American alliance, Australia has been involved a series of failed, unnecessary conflicts which have not served its interests. That ...
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Inquiry Interim Report

Don Longo

A General Submission

Don Longo

Excerpt description here ...
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Australia needs independent defence policies from the United States and such policies should include participation from a variety of sectors. It is a perfect time for Australia to take this radical step after the disastrous findings of the Brereton Report. What better time to make an independent stance than after being confronted with the horrors of war that our country has participated in? Australia’s current policy does not provide space for cross-party decision making or for the Australian community to partake in the decision-making process of whether to go to war. The current procedure provides a ‘God-like’ power to the Prime Minister to decide whether Australia will go to war. Australia’s current defence approach is to follow the US into (and out of) wars. Iraq and Afghanistan are two recent examples of Australia’s backing of US-led ‘wars’. In particular, Afghanistan is a stark example of the damage that results not just from the duration of a war, but the exit of war. 1. The costs and consequences of the US-Australia Alliance relating to First Nations peoples and self-determination rights There is little needed to say on this matter, as the invasion of countries is a clear breach of First Nations ...
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Submission – 214

War preparations accelerate IPAN submission By Brian Boyd “They have an overall goal to become the leading country in the world…That’s not going to happen on my watch.” (US president Joe Biden at a press conference, March 2021.) “Be prepared to respond…[and focus on]… combat readiness”. (Chinese president Xi Jinping at a meeting of PLA military leaders, March 2021.) Introduction Despite the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to rage across the globe, rolling on from 2020 and into 2021, war talk - and more worryingly - war preparations by the great power blocs, is on the increase. The two main economic, strategic competitors, the US and China, are particularly involved in this escalating arms race. It is more important than ever that an articulate and meaningful pro-peace/anti-war narrative be developed for and by the Australian people. The pro-war hawk elite centred in Canberra, embedded within certain think tanks, sections of academia and most of the monopoly media, are generating almost daily diatribes that beat the ‘war drums’ on behalf of one particular power bloc, the US superpower. Clearly the pre-war atmospherics and respective military build-ups being generated by both the US and China, are not in Australia’s interests, or the region as ...
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Submission – 207

Submission 174 – Colin Mitchell

am making this submission for a few reasons. Mainly I believe our voices must combine to ensure our governments do not go to war without full unanimous consent by debate and voting in parliament. I do not condone any wars. My father was conscripted into Vietnam War, he, although somewhat even in denial of his embedded PTSD state of being, is still effected today, which has adversely effected all things preceding his time in the war, in his own way, he is still at war today. PTSD is real. My own life and that of my family would be very different today had my father not gone to war. The long term effects of war are still being denied, the effects upon families is talked about as though there is understanding, yet there is not. There seems no understanding until our governments acknowledge that it is not okay to join wars without discussion or even consent! We should not even be having to make submissions or have inquiries. I stand against all wars, as there are other ways forward. Solutions will never come spending billions and trillions each day on war, when solutions would even cost less. We need real ...
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Submission 188 – Terry Fitzpatrick

Prospects for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has now entered into Law and is making a significant contribution to establishing a global norm against nuclear weapons. It is a path that has been successfully followed in establishing global norms against Chemical Weapons, Biological Weapons, Land Mines and Cluster Munitions. It will depend for its effectiveness on the degree to which it focusses public attention on the issue of nuclear weapons and mobilises public sentiment around the world for the elimination of nuclear weapons. In Australia it has received public attention partly because ICAN received the Nobel Prize. Two existential threats threaten the survival of humanity – climate change and nuclear war. Of these 2 threats climate change is receiving all the attention and nuclear war hardly any by comparison. The public has become complacent about the threat of nuclear war. The Cold War is a memory and the nightmare of the Cuban Missile Crisis was not experienced by most. It is possible that this complacency will continue until a crisis occurs which poses the threat of the use of nuclear weapons, or until a nuclear weapon ...
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Submission 220 – Ray Cavenagh

Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission regarding our Foreign Policy in relation to our alliance with America and its military and strategic ambitions. I am leader of a Faith Community in Brisbane called St Marys In Exile. My faith stance strongly influences my views in these matters. I am opposed to war making in all its forms. I believe that our relationship with the USA is heading into military conflict with China. This greatly disturbs me. I believe that Australia's national security is better served through adopting an independent foreign policy; by relationship building with all our Asian neighbours; managing conflicts without violence; and finding diplomatic solutions rather than depending on militarism; and creating a culture of peace. We have witnessed a gradual increase in militarism and the use of war to manage conflict globally. We have also seen how COVID has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, infected millions, and sowed agony and sorrow in the hearts of victims’ families, friends, and loved ones. It has squeezed medical teams and staff with a huge number of cases that are beyond their capacity. It has closed schools and shut down economies world wide. Over the past ...
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Submission 215 – Jasmine Pilbrow

Cavenagh submission IPA As a child in Liverpool I was very aware of the US military presence in Australia. As I got older, and more and more books appeared about WWII, I had to abandon things about this US presence that I had learned as a child, and came to respect the work that the US undertook to first, defend Australia, and second to take the war to Japan. As a child I cheered, along with everyone else, the 'atom bomb'. As an adolescent I shared the particular fears of the 1950s about nuclear destruction, and the consequences of the Cold War. I supported the Korean intervention. When Australia entered the war in Vietnam I was horrified. The reasons advanced by the Austrlaian Government were all about an insurance policy issued by the US, and had nothing to do with the rights of the Vietnamese people themselves; the Gulf of Tonkin incident was clearly fraudulent; the Anericans had little understanding of the local people and had a singular contempt for the so-called 'enemy'; the 1966 pamphlet issued by the Liberal Government, with its arrow pointing from China to Australia, was childish and fraudulent; and the rate of growth in the ...
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Submission 214 – Brian Boyd

Submission 212 – Kyriacos Kyriacou

WAR TALK *– state of play (June 2021) War preparations accelerate IPAN submission By Brian Boyd “They have an overall goal to become the leading country in the world...That’s not going to happen on my watch.” (US president Joe Biden at a press conference, March 2021.) “Be prepared to respond...[and focus on]... combat readiness”. (Chinese president Xi Jinping at a meeting of PLA military leaders, March 2021.) Introduction Despite the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to rage across the globe, rolling on from 2020 and into 2021, war talk - and more worryingly - war preparations by the great power blocs, is on the increase. The two main economic, strategic competitors, the US and China, are particularly involved in this escalating arms race. It is more important than ever that an articulate and meaningful pro-peace/anti-war narrative be developed for and by the Australian people. The pro-war hawk elite centred in Canberra, embedded within certain think tanks, sections of academia and most of the monopoly media, are generating almost daily diatribes that beat the ‘war drums’ on behalf of one particular power bloc, the US superpower. Clearly the pre-war atmospherics and respective military build-ups being generated by both the US and China, are ...
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Submission 207 – Belinda Curtis

I believe that the current sabre rattling with China is wrong and irrational. I believe that Australia should stand on it's own two feet in matter of national interest, not rely so heavily on the US. New Zealand is a good example of this. I believe that other nations would have a much healthier respect for us. As it stands now, I believe that we are viewed as being weak, that we're too frightened to be independent. A 'loser' mentality if you will. I think that we should re-think our foreign policy. War is not the answer ...
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Submission 203 – Michael Anthony Kerswell

I am making this submission for a few reasons. Mainly I believe our voices must combine to ensure our governments do not go to war without full unanimous consent by debate and voting in parliament. I do not condone any wars. My father was conscripted into Vietnam War, he, although somewhat even in denial of his embedded PTSD state of being, is still effected today, which has adversely effected all things preceding his time in the war, in his own way, he is still at war today. PTSD is real. My own life and that of my family would be very different today had my father not gone to war. The long term effects of war are still being denied, the effects upon families is talked about as though there is understanding, yet there is not. There seems no understanding until our governments acknowledge that it is not okay to join wars without discussion or even consent! We should not even be having to make submissions or have inquiries. I stand against all wars, as there are other ways forward. Solutions will never come spending billions and trillions each day on war, when solutions would even cost less. We need ...
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Submission 199 – Mark Taylor

I am Very concerned that the Australian Government Support for Military Armaments Manufacture has come much too Late and that the Next Civilian Jet liner to be Shot down is going to be directed by Australian Mercenaries. I have followed the careers of Australian Pioneering Aviators since WW1 Sir Patrick Gordon Taylor who Ably filled the Gap between Dead Reckoning Navigation and Complete Radar Surveillance with Celestial Navigation and was more successful in his life Goals than Laurence Wackett KBE. Who Formed the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation which served Australia well until after the time that the F111 Jet fighter Bombers started Falling out of the sky and having to be Upgraded by CAC. I remember reading the Wackett Biography stating that His Corporation could have Manufactured Ten Jet Fighter Aircraft for the cost of each F111. Of course the Corporation was capable of Manufacturing Aircraft Superior to the CA- 27 which Distinguished Itself in the Malayan Military Conflict. In Conclusion I believe that Military Armament Manufacturing needs to be Closely Monitored in a Nationalised Fashion and only for Self Defence and not Export Profitability. Its Never too late to Tool up for a Military Self Defence Industry. Our Industry Leaders ...
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Submission 196 – Lucia Mayo

i would like to see Australia adopt a stance of armed neutrality with good relationships with all our neighbours and trading partners. I would like our focus to shift from projection of force as part of the US Alliance to defence of our own territory, strong regional relationships and a better relationship with China. I do not see this as inconsistent with standing up for human rights in our region, including in West Papau, Tibet and Eastern Turkestan. I deeply the regret the undemocratic, unaccountable and disasterous involvement in US foreign military adventures of the last 30- 40 years, with the consequent loss of Australian lives, veteran suicides and damage to our international reputation as an independent and even handed nation. I also regret the enormous waste of resources on expensive and inappropriate hardware which comes with being a junior partner in the US alliance. I feel that the Australian people and our political representatives have been given no say in our decisions to go to war or whether or not to oppose human rights abuses in our region. I also abhor the environmental damage from militarism, including it must be said Chinese militarism in the South China Sea. Both ...
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Submission 194 – Rebecca Buttenshaw

As a citizen and voter of Australia, I state emphatically that any war with China would be disastrous for this country. Experiences in Vietnam, Iraq and, especially, Afghanistan have proved that wars against countries that pose no threat are counterproductive and futile. The only reason that Australia might incur the enmity of China is because of its close alliance with the USA and the presence of US military assets on its territory. Why is the Australian Government spending 2.09% of GDP on the military, when it has no enemies? These provocations help no one. The diversion of resources they represent leaves the nation vulnerable to Bushfire, Covid-19 and the multiple impacts of the climate crisis. Sincerely ...
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Submission 191 – Margaret Anne Brown

Historically since the ANZUS treaty was created in 1951, Australia has only been involved in wars that weren't ours. Growing up in Australia, I watched us become involved in multiple wars that didn't really have anything to do with us and it wasn't very clear what the whole point of it all was. I grew up seeing horrific bloodshed and loss of life on TV in far away countries all because there were supposed "weapons of mass destruction" that don't appear to have even existed in the first place. That wasn't our war and as an Australian it really does scare me to consider the future when this precedence is in place. Will Australia blindly follow the US into any war it decides to start? The ridiculous posturing from former US President Trump would have had us dragged in to multiple wars and we all held our breath watching to see how it would turn out at the most tumultuous times over the last few years. If things had gone sour, would we be in a war with our neighbours in Asia at this moment? And as there continues to be this back and forth of posturing with China, if ...
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Submission 186 – Maya Cifali

Australia's relationship with the United States has been a fundamental element of Australia's foreign posture since WW2. Nevertheless, that relationship can be shaped in different ways. This becomes increasingly important, as the United States under the Trump administration demonstrated very clearly its potential to act in authoritarian and unpredictable ways, that are directly counter to Australia's interests and values as a state. Even when putting aside this significant point, however, Australia's concerns, values and interests will always be distinct from those of the United States, either significantly or subtly. It is fundamentally important that our foreign policy reflects those differences. Two current examples illustrate this need. One concerns our involvement in Afghanistan. After 20 years of war, 41 Australian deaths and countless Afghan deaths, untold trauma and great cost, Australia has pulled all its troops out of Afghanistan. Senior retired generals have noted that we 'lost' this war and questioned the worth of our involvement. It is difficult to talk about 'losing' the war, since we never had any clear strategic objective for a long term involvement against which 'losing' could be judged. For the US, it was an effort to destroy a terrorist base, but the destruction of a ...
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Submission 187 – Frances Ann Long

Before rejecting our commitment to follow US foreign policies, which impact on our current social/commercial/political/strategic decisions, it would be appropriate to reinforce our alliance with other nations. Australia cannot survive on its own. Our very low population (some 26 milions, If that!) on such a large continent is an advantage as well as a curse. Regional alliance with the Pacific Nations (I mean nations of the South Pacific and Indian ocean) is a must. Only then could we envisage a more independent Australia, that is independent from the USA (or China or Russia for that matter...) . In our global world we cannot live in isolation. In today’s conditions of the world interaction, the choice is a difficult one. However our interests are not attached and subservient to those of the USA. And please ( as a secondary concern), retain our language and colloquialism as independent from the American slang ...
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Submission 184 – Roger Keyes

In the 1970s in the UK the Lucas Aerospace company was a large industrial firm which included the manufacture of defence and aerospace systems. During the First World War it made shells and fuses, as well as electrical equipment for military vehicles (Wikipedia). In 1976 the workforce were facing significant layoffs. The Lucas Plan was developed by the workforce under the guidance of an unofficial trade union body, known as the Combine. After consulting the then secretary of state for industry, Tony Benn, they were told to plan what to make instead of weapons systems. (The Guardian, 2018). The ideas contributed were whittled down to 150 products, each one deemed to be socially useful and environmentally friendly, such as wind turbines, and energy-efficient heat pumps. This plan created momentum in interest from around the world at the time. Forty years on, the products put forward by the Combine in their worker's plan are now mainstream. The International Trade Union Confederation highlighted a Just Transition strategy at the UN climate talks in Paris in 2015. The global one million climate jobs campaign led by trade unions is an attempt to start the transition by creating jobs that lower greenhouse gas emissions ...
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Submission 180 – Margid Bryn-Burns

My major concern in the matter of the USA/AUS alliance is that there seems little regard for the Will of the Australian People, and our freedom to relate to or communicate with "The Other", or, "The Enemy". Do we have any real notion of WHO "the other" is, and what his or her desires, aims and loves in fact are? The only thing we know is that our political masters have deemed "the other" to be threatening. We in the "West" are brain-washed into a mindset of superiority over the "other". Their culture, their language, aspirations and feelings are not known to us; indeed they are hidden from us. For instance, how often do we hear the musical compositions (other than pre-revolutionary times or perhaps Shostakovich), ballet performances from Moscow? Why are our masters so keen to portray "the other" as uncivilised or alien? How often do we hear Mr Lavrov, or Mr Putin speak for them selves instead of through the political filters of the Establishment. We listen to programs called CHINA ARE YOU LISTENING?, or RUSSIA ARE YOU LISTENING?. Why can't we have a Russian program called AUTRALIA ARE YOU LISTENING? And I think we can guess a ...
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Submission 181 – David Harvey

I want to say Thank-You for this opportunity. I have attempted to cover the eight points but have done so in a rather haphazard manner. A close friend, American, happily married to an Australian who trained at Duntroon, who cared for their first child whilst her husband served in Vietnam. Not an easy time. Yet, as we have discussed, easier than the lot of my very young mother, separated from her husband and experiencing first-hand night time bombing raids during WW2. Our ‘war’ conversation started recently following news about the death of a Duntroon officer by suicide. I shared of comforting my neighbour whose precious young son took his own life after serving in East Timor. I find war abhorrent. The wonton waste of war, abhorrent. Yet most of all I find the truth in the quote of the Indian writer Arundhati Roy: “Once weapons were made to manufactured to fight wars. Now wars are manufactured to sell weapons.” Absolutely, absolutely abhorrent. I no longer can vote for the party of both my heritage and earlier conviction. A state or nation creating jobs through the research/production/selling of weapons of war akin to an Undertaker Murdering her/his Children in order to ...
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Submission 178 – Brendan McKeague

I want Australia to be an independent nation with a properly representative democratic system of government. There should be a treaty with, and constitutional recognition of prior occupation. The national flag should be the First Nations' black, gold, and red. The national anthem should be 'I am Australian' by The Seekers. Australia needs to grow up and stop listening to shysters (billionaires and corporations), stop visiting mum (UK) all the time, stop trying to impress the cousin (US) and stop stirring- up the Asian kid down the road ...
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Submission 179 – BURT BLACKBURNE MARGARET WILLIAMSON

Alongside the stated question, 'what are the costs and consequences of Australia’s involvement in US-led wars and the US- alliance?' , we believe that there is also an imperative need to provide sustainable, creative ideas that counteract the multiple deficits of such 'costs and consequences'. It is our belief that, in order to move towards an independent and peaceful Australia, there is a fundamental need to provide, promote and present, alternative ways of engaging with destructive conflict and the negative, recurring outcomes of violent war. We therefore assert, and advocate for, the inclusion of educational programs about peace and nonviolence right across the whole range of school systems in Australia. This would take the form of designing and delivering appropriate curricula at each level of schooling. The United Nations has initiated, and sponsors annually, an International Day of Peace on September 21st. The theme for 2021 is: Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world. This is a closely aligned theme for promoting a serious study and conversation with a range of key stakeholders about the desire to 'teach peace' intentionally, and comprehensively, from an early age. This year, the UN invites and inspires us: 'to think creatively and collectively ...
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Submission 169 – Albert M White

SUBMISSION IPAN COMMISSION OF INQUIRY In this submission our church seeks to address most of the terms of reference of this Inquiry, in particular the economic, social and community, environmental, military, foreign relations, political and workers rights as they relate to the US/Australia Alliance. Background To The Alliance In discussing the US/Australia Alliance we need to consider the types of war that the two countries have been involved in. It was to our advantage that the US was our ally in the Second World War and we needed support because of impending invasion of Australia by Japan. However history shows US intervention whilst welcome was late into this war. Despite a long campaign led (amongst others) by then US Ambassador to the USSR Joseph Davies warning of the dangers of Fascism prior to and during the early stages of WW2, the US adopted a hands off approach. The bombing of Pearl Harbour led to a rapid escalation in their involvement in the Pacific. Up until that time the US had taken a wait and see approach and was more concerned about the economic benefits to their country. Alliance Or Subservience Unfortunately Australia’s involvement in US wars since WW2 has been ...
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Submission 169 – Josephine Vallentine

The prospect of War with China is a terrifying thought. Why politicians, for crass motives, might even contemplate such horrendous actions suggest they are mindless morons. Our planet is already in a state of critical disrepair, with the "future" for posterity in doubt. Already armies and the military are making major incursions by contributing to global warming, manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, using them to unleash destruction on, usually defenceless, peoples and engaging in (joke, not really!) "peace-time" maneuvers, and exercises, to ensure materiel interoperability! Obviously those who contemplate conflagration, conveniently, suffer amnesia or are so besotted by the blandishments of the merchants of death, as to "forget' the death, destruction and mayhem wrought by war and the FACT there are NO winners ...
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Submission 170 – Evan Andrew Hadkins

Since WW2, we have been tied to the apron strings of the United States military machine. Before that, it was Britain's apron strings. We have engaged in numerous wars of others' making, and mostly, with little benefit, if any, to our fortuitously placed island nation. We have no natural enemies. Instead of getting involved in others' war, we could focus on peacebuilding within our region. The ANZUS alliance dating from 1952, doesn't oblige parties to do anything other than meet annually to discuss military and security matters. The United States would not come to our aid if we asked it to, unless it was useful for them to do so. New Zealand had the good sense to withdraw from the alliance in 1985 following oongoing U.S. Navy's refusal to either confirm or deny presence of nuclear weapons on its warships, which frequently visited New Zealand's ports. I wish the Australian government had the good sense to follow suit. but no, we slavishly followed the U.S. into war after war, whether with United Nations endorsement or not. The latest harrowing iteration of our bowing to U.S influence was the longest and most useless of wars in Afghanistan, where after eighteen long ...
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Submission 164 – Chris Grgurovic-Vandenberg

Part of the context is climate change. Having to fit with US commitment to climate change would benefit Australia and the planet. With China wishing to exert its influence Australia could play an important regional role in promoting human rights and democracy (if we get our own house in order). Australia could demonstrate its independence and show leadership in the region by critiquing the US as well as China. It is unlikely in the future that the US will honour any of Australia's interests if they don't fit with the US's interests. (I don't think they ever have in the past, but that will be probably be debated; and is something of a distraction from discussing the future.) It seems very unlikely that we could defend ourselves against military aggression by either China or the US. For me it makes sense to prioritise other ways things. Eg Cuba sending medical aid, us promoting aid in our region. I would like to see us offering assistance to China to raise their rural regions out of poverty (the difference to the wealthy cities is marked). This would effectively be an exercise in soft power while showing that we don't regard them as ...
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Submission 162 – Frank Simpson

Australia, according to the Ageless Wisdom teachings, is the first Civilization, continuing with Europe and America, at the cusp of the dawning of the 6th subrace of the 5th Root Race of humanity. It is imperative that we learn from but not yet make the same mistakes of our parent nations. Of course this refers to the obsession of militarisation seen throughout the Capitolocene, but thankfully a new spirit of hope has entered the Earth on 7/7/1977 as Avatar for the New Age of Aquarius, positing a brilliant, technologically-advanced golden age of peace, justice, and sustainability through implementation of the principle of sharing. Share International organisation, fulfilling the work of the Theosophical Society, Agni Yoga, and Lucis Trust has given the revelatory phase of the Esoteric Teachings which focuses the Reappearance of Maitreya the World Teacher, the Head of our Spiritual Hierarchy and Master of the group of Masters of Wisdom. (www.share-international.org). An example of this is making the fact of His presence known as I did on the streets of Adelaide to Christopher Pyne last year, as well as Penny Wong, and receiving a personal acknowledgement of Maitreya's creation of the "Marree (or Lemurian) Man" from Indigenous Affairs Minister ...
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Submission 161 – Eileen Whiteheaad

Concern about the impact of population growth by immigration on quality of life and the environment. Also concerned about relations with China. Australia has no territorial dispute with China and so has no need to follow the USA into a war with China. Need to leave ANZUS and the USA military alliance. Defence spending needs to be diverted to preparing for and action on climate change impacts ...
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Submission 159 – Joan and Alan McColl

I am increasingly concerned about the direction being taken by our government with regard to foreign policy, particularly the direction in which the ANZUS treaty, signed between the US, Australia and New Zealand in 1951, is taking. It was intended to be for the purpose of providing mutual aid in the event of aggression and for settling disputes by peaceful means, but increasingly it seems to be involving Australia in U.S.-initiated wars. And with the current aggression being shown by the latest President of the United States, our national sovereignty appears to be threatened by having U.S. troops stationed on our soil: such ‘foreign’ troops not being answerable to Australian laws. Over the past few decades, Australian Prime Ministers have – almost unanimously – over-egged the importance of ANZUS for what appears to be political reasons, and everyone has forgotten its original intention. This political obfuscation is constricting proper debate about Australia’s foreign and defence policy which, in turn corrupts the rigour needed to unravel Australia’s perceived dependence on the U.S. We now have a couple of generations steeped in this misguided comprehension of Australia’s place in this so-called ‘alliance’, formulated after Australia, and subsequently the U.S., had been attacked ...
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View Submissions (General)

We submit that spending money on climate change, the unique and special environment we have in Australia and our first nations people rather than spending it on easily out-dated would bring much more benefit to not only the present generation, but to our children and grandchildren ...
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(no title)

Economic

Because I am supportive of a change towards peaceful futures ...
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A General Submission

I want to make this submission to raise awareness of the dire circumstances humanity is currently experiencing in this particular time on planet Earth. I would like to share some insights and possible solutions ...
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 ...
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Stilt walkers @2007 Stop Talisman Saber Peace Parade

Shoalwater Bay: Bombing Site or World Heritage? ...
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Vince Scappatura E Flyer

Terry 100 Words E Flyer

Peter Catt E Flyer

Greg 100 Words E Flyer

Ian Lowe E Flyer

Chad Satterlee E Flyer

Alison Broinowski E Flyer

Jeannie 100 Words E Flyer

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Read Submissions

WILPF-Australia-submission-to-IPAN-Peoples-Inquiry-2021-31052021

With over 100 submissions made to the Inquiry, you can read the fantastic work here ...
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IPAN National Conference 2022 was held in Canberra in November 2022. The People's Inquiry Report was also launched in Parliament House. Read and view all presentations at those events on the IPAN website here ...
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Submission 155

Australia's alliance with the United States has taken us as Australian citizens into at least four wars since WWII that have been pointless. And, now there are mumblings and propaganda that is conditioning Australian's to believe we have an enemy in China. A war against China would be sheer madness and in the event China might need to use its military might against us as part of the alliance with the USA, the first place it would attack is Pine Gap, the US spy facility. Pine Gap, and indeed most of northern Australia that would face extreme military attack, sits on some of the most ancient historic sites in the world. Sites that the oldest living culture on Earth have cared for and have been of great significance to. I dread to think of how many of the Earth's and First Nation's people's archaeologic sites could be damaged should there ever be a war with a superpower that is China ...
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Submission 154

There are two aspects to examine when considering the cost of Australia’s military alliance with the USA; the political cost, and the value for money in terms of defending Australia. On both aspects the Australian people are being cheated. The political cost Both Liberal and Labor are fixated on the idea that the US will defend Australia if we are attacked. Because the US used Australia as a convenient land base in World War 11, the parliamentary parties see this as a guarantee of future protection. They invoke the ANZUS Treaty as binding insurance, however this agreement only provides for “consultation” in the event of attack, rather than automatic military assistance. Indeed, the US has repeatedly stated that they reserve the right to take military action only when “… the interests of the USA… ” are threatened. Both Liberal and Labor hope to get around this inconvenient fact by ingratiating themselves to US governments by endorsing and regurgitating almost every US foreign policy position and action. Subsequently, Australian forces have followed US commands into Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria and are training pro-US repressive regimes in Indonesia and the Philippines. None of these countries has ever threatened Australia. Nor ...
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Submission 153

Only Fools Talk of War He sits there in the hospital staring at the wall Just another victim of a long-forgotten war The nurses try to catch his words wonder what he saw Just an old solider saying it’s only fool’s talk of war Chorus Only fool’s talk of war only fools talk of war If you look into soldier’s eyes you will see the pain Only fools talk of war He’s marching down the street with his head erect The sunlight dances and glistens on the medals on his chest The crowd cheer their hero and wave their flags as he goes by He smiles and waves back at them but inside his soul it cries Chorus He jumps up in the night as he hears a dead man scream The nurses try to comfort him and say it’s just a dream But the voices in his head are just driving him insane It’s the voices of the innocent and they are all saying Chorus Hiroshima Nagasaki Palestine and Vietnam After Two world wars, you would think we’d learn not to kill our fellow man The Irish genocide of eighteen forty-five A million Irish children died A million Irish ...
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Submission 152

An Independent and Sovereign Australian Economy The following economic statement by Spirit of Eureka is predicated on the undeniable fact that the Australian economy has deliberately developed in an uneven manner into a dependent capitalist, vassal state. From colonial unsettlement by the British to the current economic domination by the United States the Australian economy has been designed to serve foreign economic interests. The concomitant of this economic distortion is the creation of an Australian military that serves primarily our economic masters endless foreign wars. This statement attempts to address the economic issues that confront the Australia People and proposes a program to extract the country from the clutches of foreign ownership and control, particularly US military influences. Our defence and economy must be based on the strategy of guaranteeing Australia's Independence. Introduction The reoccurring crises of capitalism (e.g. 2000 Dot.Com crash, 2008 GFC/Sub-Prime Mortgage collapse, and the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic economic crisis) demonstrate how unstable and exploitative the capitalist market is. It inflicts hardship and destitution on workers whilst further enriching giant corporations and the rich. Over the past few decades Australia has lost sizable and vital areas of local manufacturing, leaving Australia precariously dependent on overseas supply chains ...
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Submission 151

The greatest threat to Australian security is right now the threat of global thermonuclear war. This is so to a greater extent than it has ever been even in the height of the cold war. The risk of nuclear war is as great, or greater, than it has ever been. The 'Doomsday Clock' is at 100 seconds to 'midnight', which is essentially the end of the world via global thermonuclear war. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ https://thebulletin.org/2021/01/press-release-this-is-your-covid-19-wake-up-call-it-is-100-secondsto-midnight/] The hands of the Doomsday Clock have never been so close to midnight. The ‘next closest’ to midnight was in 1954, when the hands stood at 2 minutes to midnight, at a time when the US contemplated pre-emptive strikes against the Soviets, and in the immediate aftermath of the first THERMO - nuclear tests. COVID has if anything worsened the nuclear risk. Prof. Louis Beres notes in The Atom and the Virus that: “Americans may too easily forget, in the midst of a biological plague, that assorted “ordinary” geopolitical threats have not thereby gone away. In this regard, multiple risks of nuclear war with several adversarial nations have actually been growing. Here, too, grievously fearful developments are largely attributable to an incompetent and indifferent American president.” “Prima ...
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Submission 147

Australia should have a truly independent foreign policy, should be more closely aligned with the interests of its many Asian neighbours, and should cease to be an obedient vassal of a large foreign power which persists in maintaining wars in many parts of the world in order to satisfy the interests of its burgeoning military industries. I think former PM Malcolm Fraser's book "Dangerous Allies" spells it out clearly ...
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Submission 146

Years ago I read a pamphlet authorized by Lee Rhiannon from the NSW Upper House which said Australia spends $89 million dollars a day on defense/war. I understand that under Malcolm Turnbull, the amount increased to $100 million a day! So currently Australia spends money on weapons of war and training for US-led wars. I object to this kind of expenditure and its use. I want Australia to be a neutral country. I do not support the US alliance. But unlike Malcolm Frazer, I want to drastically slash military spending and instead have a Peace Corps to deal with The Climate Emergency that is impacting Australia in the form of bushfires, floods, droughts, and more emergencies. I was at The Harold Park Hotel, the night Frazer launched his book, and I was horrified when he answered my question about military spending as he believed in massive increases in spending. I'm an advocate for peace and building Common Weal or CommonWealth in Australia and internationally. I do not want our public monies to fund drone attacks or bombing attacks. I want an end to handing corporations bundles of our cash i.e. outsourcing, privatization, embedded corporates in government. Importantly I want the ...
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Submission 145

I have grave and increasing concerns about the Australia/US alliance. I will attempt to summarise them as follows: 1. The increasing possibility of a US led war with China, leading to devastation on multiple fronts: environmental, human suffering & loss of life; extreme life difficulties (much worse than the COVID epidemic) including economic hardship, dislocation of peoples, particularly First Australians; psychological terrorising of the Australian (and Chinese & US) populations, particularly children; escalation & worsening of relations between Australia & China, including extreme retaliatory reactions from China or groups within China. 2. The imbalance of power, including the increasing US strategic military presence in Australia, allowing Australia to be used as a US puppet state, which, in the event of a war with China, would very likely be 'in the 'front line' taking the brunt of US attacks while having little power to direct proceedings. It is difficult for me to even imagine or articulate the possible short and long term effects of this, except to say that Australia would no longer be the place we know and call home. Australian citizens could likely become civilian casualties of war and/or refugees as a result of needing to flee a war ...
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Submission 144

As an Australian, I realised that I’ve been propagandised to the hilt most of my life. I discovered this around 2013 after watching a programs by independent journalist Abby Martin, her latest offering “The Empire Files. Until this revelation, the widespread global corporate media and their propaganda had lead me to believe some rather outlandish lies about the many target countries of US empire. In retrospect the corporate media has also kept the racist white supremacist narratives on the slow boil for many decades. Thanks to independent journalism, I also woke up to the global corporate media’s ongoing efforts to manufacture consent for more war. I realised they were just propaganda arms of the US National Security State - the invisible unelected government that runs seamlessly through each US administration. In a nutshell, the aim of this was to assist the world’s greatest Empire to steal resources and obtain full spectrum dominance. To call it an Empire is appropriate as it has 800 plus bases worldwide. Since 1945, the US has overthrown the governments of at least 50 plus countries. It has assassinated or attempted to assassinate many world leaders who have become inconvenient to their aim of full spectrum ...
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Submission 140

Australia’s Defence Policies: Immature, immoral, subservient and compromise our sovereignty Australia’s defence policies, have, since before Federation, been based on a principle which might be called strategic dependence. Before WWII the dependence was on Britain and following the fall of Singapore to Japanese forces in WWII, Australia switched its dependency to the United States as a way of securing military assistance in the Pacific Theatre again the Japanese. In both cases of dependency, Australia took part in wars waged by the dominant power as a show of loyalty in the belief that such participation, irrespective of their necessity or morality, would demonstrate Australia’s loyalty and strengthen the defence “insurance“ policy which the dependency was expected to deliver. Whilst strategic dependence was supposedly based on principle, in practice it ignored moral and humanitarian principles by supporting imperialist, immoral and illegal wars waged by one or other of the imperial powers upon which the dependence was based. For example, Australia took part in Britain’s 1885 colonial war in Sudan, followed by the Boer War in South Africa from 1899 to 1902 and Britain’s suppression of the anti-colonial ‘Boxer Rebellion’ in China between 1900 and 1901. This 1885 expedition to Sudan had nothing ...
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Submission 139

All countries have a choice as to whether or not to become involved in a war. The choice is dictated by the country’s perception of the costs and benefits of involvement. Of the choices made for a country by reason of its geographical proximity, when they are attacked, or fear an attack sufficiently to take defensive action. It is comparatively rare for a country to involve itself in wars that pose little or no direct threat to that country’s own safety. Australia is a relatively rare example of a country that has willingly involved itself in wars waged by others, that pose little or no threat to the country itself. The first such involvement by Australia came early in its colonial history when Australian soldiers were sent to Crimea to fight on behalf of the British forces in the war against Russia from 1853 to 1856. There was no conceivable Australian interest in that war fought by the British or behalf of a colonial escapade remote from the interests of the Australian people. That war was fought against Russia. This is one of the ironies of history that Australia’s modern-day antipathy to Russia is based in part on Crimea returning ...
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Submission 138

Australia has had a history of supporting imperialist regimes, first the British, now the US. In our own interest we need to reassess and become a neutral independent country. We are clearly moving into a multi polar world, the US is loosing influence economically and politically, whilst China is rising fast. The costs of wars in the past 40 years have caused untold suffering not just in the countries it took place, but also amongst our war veterans - many suffering post traumatic stress, and a high number has committed suicide. Many others have been suffering from cancers and disease in their offspring caused by the chemicals they were exposed to in the wars they were sent to fignt for the US imperialists. This is posing a huge cost to our health system. What is worse, not a single one of those wars has been won or has been a success. America has lost all credibility in the world and it's time that we have a good look at our relationship with the US. I would like to see Australia be an independent nation, non-aligned, a force for peace in the world and at the same time have good relationships ...
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Submission 135

Please end Australia's involvement in wars lead by belligerent war-mongers from the USA and the like, who start wars for economic purpose and lie about true reason ...
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Submission 134

If you're fortunate enough to live in Australia and you value your children and grandchildren as much as you value yourself, and you've had an education that has put a roof over your head, you just keep chipping away. As Pablo Casales, the world's most famous cellist said:-" We must take the next step" At one stage funding for global environmental repair was only 5% of global military spending and it is said that giving the global military machine 2 weeks holiday, the money saved could be used to adequately feed, clothe, house and educate the entire population of the world. Our four basic, essential needs are clean, carbon-constrained AIR, unpolluted WATER, uncontaminated SOIL and SPECIES DIVERSITY and now for the first time in the history of humanity, we can no longer guarantee that the air we breathe is safe to breathe anywhere in the world. Today smoking kills 7 million people per year. Air pollution kills 8 million people per year. Last year the 7-year-old daughter of a major Australian organisation asked her father if she would need to wear a mask for the rest of her life. Not a prospect any 7-year-old would look forward to, any more ...
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PICCAIUSLW_7apr2021.docx

20210103-Submission-3

Submission 130

I am deeply concerned by the racist attitudes of the leaders of Australia's LNP Government and their inability to effect an Australian Foreign Policy that is not British, American and Eurocentric in nature. Alienation of our most important trading partner and increasingly sycophantic overtones to America along with increased arms and weapons industry development, as well as military spending, represent a disastrous foreign policy trend. Little of promise comes from the ALP, apart from the recent decision to distance ourselves from nuclear proliferation. Although there is little evidence that much would change in terms of reduced military spending and a more common sense approach to Foreign Policy in an ALP led government ...
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Submission 128

IPAN-INQUIRY-SUBMISSION-Newman-6April2021 (2).docx

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS MUST NOT BE VIOLATED I support an independent and peaceful Australia in foreign policy and in national defense. In declaring our foreign policy independence from the US we should acknowledge at the same time our support for human rights and principles of democratic freedom and declare our concern about both in relation to China, including our concerns about Yuighurs in China, Tibetans, and the loss of political freedoms in Hong Kong. Not to do so and to remain silent on these issues would rightly cause the final report from this Inquiry to lose credibility with the public and appear to be biased and one-sided. So I consider it essential that our support for the principles of human rights and democracy be declared in relation to all countries, and in particular in declaring our independence from US policy, that we express our condemnation of the violation of these principles by China and any other nation. Because the thrust of our report will relate to independence from the US, we must specifically mention China and condemn China's violation of these principles, to make it clear that we are not aligning with the policies of China ...
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Submission 122

The Morrison Government criticises China for building a military base in the South China Sea but is silent about US bases all over the world (in more than 90 countries). In the Chagos Islands, The US and UK governments evicted the indigenous population to build a massive military base. The indigenous population are still to this day not allowed back. The Morrison Government is silent on the issue. This is utter hypocrisy and makes a mockery of our foreign policy ...
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Submission 116

During an anti-war protest in 2014 I was assaulted by SAS soldiers. The details I will not write for fear of re-traumatizing myself or others. These are torture tactics applied and taught by US Special Forces, under the umbrella of JSOC (joint special operations command), of which the Australian SAS operated under. In 2020, in the Brereton Report, it became clear that soldiers from the same unit had murdered people, including children in Afghanistan. It should not be a surprise, given how 4 Australian citizens on Australian soil could be treated by our military- trained by the US. And how it was largely ignored by the Australian media and peace movement. To this day i still have PTSD, panic attacks and Generalised Anxiety Disorder stemming from this event. What damage have Australian Special Forces, trained by and with the US Special Forces done around the world? ...
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Submission 114

Submissions _ Entry # 113 GRAVENER Family IPAN Submission FINAL

The Blood-for-Oil Iraq War needs a Public Chilcott-type Inquiry 20th March,2021 is 18 years since Australia made the decision to join the United States in the disastrous war of aggression against Iraq. No Australian public Inquiry into the reasons and political responsibilities for that decision has been held and one is very much needed as war clouds are developing in South East Asia and a decision to join the US in another war may be around the corner. 18 years ago, on March 20th 2003, Australia joined the United States, the UK, Denmark and Poland in a military invasion of Iraq, a sovereign country, in flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, with no authorization by the UN Security Council and based on lies propagated by the political leaders of those countries. The invasion and subsequent war devastated the country, causing over 500,000 Iraqi deaths and the destruction of civil infrastructure leading to loss of electricity and water supplies and leaving homes, schools and hospitals in rubble. Hundreds of thousands were forced to abandon their homes and flee the war zone. The government of Saddam Hussein had been a firm opponent of Al-Qaeda, but following the invasion Iraq became a ...
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Submission 111

Commenting on Australian National Security policy is problematical because the policy is currently so heavily invested in the US ‘Alliance’ that realignment, away from achieving outcomes that conform with US interests, presents as a practical impossibility. Faced with that, Australians are left to ask ‘What other limits on sovereign agency are imposed by the current arrangements with the US Empire?’ The answer to this question will rule any further discussion of National Security policy options and possibilities. May, indeed, entirely rule out the need for any further public discussion and justify the, longtime, Parliamentary practice of ‘no-comment’. With reference to ‘background sheet 7’, https://independentpeacefulaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Background_Sheet_7__Foreign_Policy.pdf In a thumb nail, Australia’s relationship with the British Empire was fundamentally different from its current relationship with the US Empire. The former arrangement was not seamlessly replaced by the latter. In times past Australia fought in the British Empire’s wars. Australia paid every tax the Empire imposed. It raised finance in Britain, supplied minerals and agricultural produce at a discount and bought British manufactures at a premium. Australia did all this because Australians were British Citizens living, freehold, in the midst of the Crown Lands and consequently, willingly - even eagerly, bore those burdens. Similarly; ...
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Submission 107

After a public inquiry was released about 39 disturbing and barbaric alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by 25 Australian Defence Force personnel from 2005 to 2016, some commentators played the inquiry down, as though only committed by ‘a few bad eggs’, however numerous reports of massacre, murder and torture by Australians throughout the Middle East, and historically in other regions throughout the world, prove that this is a continuation of Australian participation in military aggression and violence, to maintain and further US dominance. In Australia’s longest war, the typical excuses were made to invade Afghanistan, under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) recommendations to defend the US against further attacks in the wake of 9/11. There is clear evidence that there was a scheme developed by the US to invade several Middle Eastern countries in the lead up to this event. As General Wesley Clark pointed out, the US had plans to attack seven Middle Eastern countries starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran, in a bid to reshape the Middle East to be more in line with their interests. Australia’s interests in Afghanistan, participating in these barbaric acts, is to cater ...
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Submission 102

1.Lost opportunities Being embedded in the policies of the United States has meant that we in Australia have missed an opportunity to take our place in the region in which we are placed geographically and politically. By now Australia, a multi-national, multi- cultural country should have had the ability to speak and be respected but we are not, we continue to act and be seen as an appendage of the United States of America. As we are nominally still ruled by the Queen this is one of the deterrents to planning for full independence from both the UK and the US. The act of federation of the Commonwealth in 1901 still stands in our constitution “WHEREAS the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established: And whereas it is expedient to provide for the admission into the Commonwealth of other Australasian Colonies and possessions of the Queen” It is time for Australians to demand full independence under a new constitution one that ...
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Submission 101

RSVP for final webinar on U.S.-Australia alliance

It is sad that IPAN needs to initiate an inquiry into Australia’s involvement in US-led wars and the US-Alliance - A People’s Inquiry that exposes the costs and consequences of this Alliance that our political leaders and ‘the establishment’ do not allow to be made public due to ‘national security’, ‘not in the public interest’, deliberate misleading statements, and the need to maintain a security threat with increased defence spending. The Australian Government last year signed a contract for 12 submarines costing $80 Billion over 20 years, submarines described that will be ‘out of date’ and basically an ‘attack weapon’, and a suitable vessel to participate in war games in the South China Sea with our US allies. These funds should be allocated for the Australian environment and our communities. 12 Submarines are not going to do much to protect and restore the Australian landscape, protect our wildlife, and rebuild our rural communities. “If this $80 billion dollars was spent in our rural communities, I have estimated (as a former regional economist) that the multiplier effect would provide a minimum of 5 to 10 times the number of Australian jobs” National security: Pine Gap plays an integral role in the ...
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Teal Beer Birthday Party Facebook Event Cover (7)

RSVP now for the final webinar in a series on the U.S.-Australia alliance ...
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Ride-for-Adam

Ride for Adam ...
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Watch the U.S.-Australian alliance webinar series

A series of four webinars on the U.S.-Australian alliance with leading experts ...
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Submission 100

2020 ended with an ever evolving pre-war scenario still in play. The possibility of outright military conflict between the US and China has increased in probability from around 10% a decade ago to as high as 50% in 2021. Some commentators are suggesting that a trigger could be a miscalculation in the South China Sea and even a new “disruptive US military technology” (1) coming into play. The recent change to the formal political leadership in the United States does not detract from the main dilemma facing the world, the ongoing and intensifying great power rivalry that could lead to open conflict. A rising mercantile driven superpower is challenging and established dominant superpower. In every area of trade, investment, technology and economic growth, China and the US are increasingly competing for access to other countries raw materials, markets and excess to labour. This contest is escalating political and military tension, particularly in Australia’s region of the Indo Pacific. One recent editorial pointed out that “the US will seek support to push back” against “China’s strategy of using it economic heft and share of global trade…” The editorial went on to suggest interestingly that Australia would welcome an approach “not to ...
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Submission 97

Since Australia was first colonised in 1788, there has always been a deep underlying fear that another country will invade and occupy this vast and relatively empty land. As a result, the idea of dependence on a great and powerful friend has pervaded this predominantly white settler society, preventing the emergence of an independent foreign policy or a vision of Australia as a country in the Asia-Pacific region rather than an extension of Europe on the wrong side of the world. Until 1942, this meant dependence on the .Royal Navy then after that, the United States with the quid pro quo than in both cases Australia had to send troops in support of their military adventures even when they were nothing to do with Australia. Thus in the eyes of many political figures, Australia became a country whose image was built around the legend of the ANZACs and subsequent wars and glorification of our military forces, particularly on ANZAC Day and through the construction of extravagant war memorials both in Canberra and overseas. The cost has been enormous in terms of the waste of young lives and heavy expenditure on irrelevant military equipment tying us in with the military forces ...
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Submission 91

In order for Australia to become independent and peaceful we must first address the injustices to our First Nations People by accepting the Uluru Statement From the Heart and enter into a meaningful treaty with them. We must learn lessons from them about caring for this land the better to address climate change. We must adopt urgent and lasting measures to address the greatest threat to our peaceful coexistence on our planet climate change. While ever we have military alliances with other countries we cannot be independent and we delude ourselves if we believe they will protect us. So we must insist on the closure of the US bases on our soil and never be fooled into thinking they are here for our benefit. We must never become an arms manufacturing country believing that is an acceptable way to use our expertise. Instead we must use our considerable knowhow for the benefit of mankind not its destruction. Donations to political parties solely aimed at seeking to but influence must be forbidden with clear ruled to prevent this. The revolving door from politics to industry by politicians who have and use contacts within government for ulterior purposes must be strongly discouraged ...
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Submission 90

The following submission is the letter I wrote to the Prime Minister, on behalf of Just Peace QLD, on July 4th 2019. It deals specifically with the willingness of Scott Morrison to seriously consider supporting the USA in any military action against Iran. I am sure his support has not changed. 4th July, 2019 Dear Mr. Morrison, On the occasion of the 243rd anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, I write on behalf of Just Peace Queensland Inc. This is an organization that seeks peaceful means of resolving conflict between and within nations. The purpose of this letter is to ask whether the you would clarify for us your June 28th Osaka statement, and reasons, for seriously considering any US presidential request to join military action against Iran. You are a man of God and a devout Christian, so I am puzzled by the approach you have taken. I know that you are aware of the many and serious consequences of taking military action against a sovereign nation especially Iran, which has been the victim of sanctions imposed by America for 40 years. I must assume that you have sought the advice of your ministers and ...
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Submission 87

European white caucasian people have taken control and populated a major percentage of the world. This is perceived as threatening to other countries who have maintained their own space. For Australia to join America and the rest of their allies to interefer, coerce or bribe through trade offs, other nations to follow the American agenda is unfair and increases tensions and the likelihood of wars ...
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Submission 86

It is simple: Australia should maintain a strategic relationship with USA but not in a sycophantic mode. Australia needs to assert its independence and not be lead around like a donkey. Needs to take this approach with all countries not just USA. Australia should actually be positioned as a go-between between USA and China but has pretty much stuffed that up. Dependence on the USA has led Australia into morally unjustifiable wars which have had disastrous consequences for the invaded countries including Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Dependence on USA has led to Australian foreign policy mirroring that of the United States and is currently leading Australia into dangerous waters impacting negatively on trading relations with Australia’s major trading partner, China. There have been negative impacts directly and indirectly on the Australian people, to our soldiers and civilians, compromising health and social needs, the environment Integration with the U.S. military would almost certainly draw Australia into any conflict which the United States has with China with subsequent economic disaster for the Australian people. Australia needs to recognise and support the fact that diplomacy is vital to safeguarding our national interests. An annual spend of $28 billion on defence compared to $1 ...
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Submission 85

Queen Elizabeth l and the MRF-D. Words spoken by Elizabeth l of England have relevance to contemporary events. On August 9th, 1588, as a Spanish Armada approached, she addressed troops gathered at Tilbury, near London. Her speech opened with the following words:- “We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery…”1 Mao Tse Tung puts a similar idea more succinctly:- "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."2 In a famous essay, sociologist Max Weber argued that the state gives itself, alone, the right to use or authorize the use of physical force. This is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of the modern state. “… we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.”3 These examples illustrate of a fundamental principle of government:- that it is essential to the ordered running and security of the State, that the government in power maintains monopoly control over all the violence that takes place within its sphere of governance. This is axiomatic. It defines the ...
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Submission 84

Australia's relationship with the USA needs to be independent and peaceful and foreign policy needs to reflect that in the coming years. On-going conflicts in the Middle East, the growing power of China, the existential ramifications of global warming and biodiversity loss and many more issues of our times necessitate an intelligent foreign policy informed by the need for peace, science and intergenerational equity. Australia is not “joined at the hip” to the US - this is not a sentiment supported by the Australian public who routinely disagree with US foreign policy. Australia needs to build a diplomatic and policy apparatus that can not only deviate from Washington but pursue the interests of the Australian people. This will only happen when a cohesive and informed foreign policy approach is established ...
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Submission 83

Military governors headed our first colonial settlements and led the Frontier Wars to dispossess the indigenous people. I thought we had outgrown that military relic. But not so. We are back with military governor’s general rewarded for their service in Afghanistan. The military are being intruded into more and more of our civil life. The never-ending stories of Gallipoli, the Western front and Armistice go on and on. We celebrate war on a scale that no other country does. Government ministers, Veterans Affairs, the Australian War Memorial and the media imbedded in the military complex can’t contain themselves. Public occasions are invariably backgrounded by numerous flags with military uniforms on display. Our poorly funded fire fighters now have to call on the military. The military are even enrolled in a pandemic instead of the police. Australia Day should be a civilian celebration of our multicultural success. But even then the military are there on queue. They back the citizenship celebrations in Canberra with a gun salute and march past. The Navy is conspicuous on Sydney Harbour and we have an RAAF fly past. The military drown out all the mixed groups around Australia who quietly celebrate our real successes, the ...
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Submission 78

Thank you for the opportunity to express my great anxiety on the military paths on which Australia is increasingly involved, to the detriment of improvements to our welfare structures. Federal Government Policies: The Prime Minister has issued statements that he is proud that Australia is shaping up to be the 10th biggest producer and exporter of arms in the world. His justification appears to be the creation of jobs, but principally it assists the US in its military operations destabilising the globe. As a Quaker, member of several peace organisations, including WILPF and Secretary of Alternatives to Violence Queensland, I have a concern for the sanctity of human life and the belief that all humans are part of one family. Diplomacy, not killing, will lead to more peaceful outcomes. As a member of Just Peace, my reading of their last quarterly newsletter fills me with alarm. In particular, the article on the 800 US Military Bases encircling the globe paints a picture that does not promote peace. In Australia, Pine Gap, the Darwin US Military Training Base and the regular Talisman Sabre joint exercises off the Yeppoon coast all reduce Australian sovereignty over our own land. These are all potential ...
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Submission 76

To ensure a genuinely independent and peaceful foreign policy for Australia.we need to show balance in our international relations. If we are to declare that China should not build a military base in the South China Sea, then we should balance that by saying the USA should not have bases in over 90 countries, including their Chagos Island' base built after the USA evicted the indigenous population. The b ase is still in use but we remain silent and tacitly approve ...
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Submission 73

Submission – Noel Stuart Turnbull

From years and years of working in countries engaged in civil war and recovering from war such Timor Leste, Cambodia, VietNam and Afghanistan and work with Pacific Islands nations I have been aware how much Australia must be Independent and Peaceful facilitator of health, environment and prosperity in our region. Australia is compromised by being engaged with an increasing difficult USA and it has not served us to be with it in such recent engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and longer ago, VietNam. I am also a Quaker deeply convinced that the way to Peace is Peace. And that we will be trusted and consulted when we are independent. The Asia-West Pacific region requires an Independent politics and future. So in this submission I make a serious and engaged request thaat all Australia's policies from now be directed to becoming a Peaceful and Independent Nation ...
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I am a Vietnam veteran who served as an Artillery Officer. I was a conscript and was not opposed to the war at the time. However, after my tour of duty I realised the war was unwinnable and the devastation inflected on Vietnam was unnecessary and criminal. After returning to Vietnam a number of times since I became aware of how it might have been become another Asian tiger much sooner if they had not endured the war and the suffering and devastation involved. The killings, the bombings, the defoliants were unnecessary and achieved nothing except destruction. Subsequently we made the same mistake in Iraq - a war which was made worse in moral terms because of the lies told about WMDs. The situation of the Middle East as a result of US, Australian and UK involvement is a stark evidence of what dreadful mistakes were made. All this is clear evidence of the need for commitment of troops to be only undertake after thorough honest debate in our Parliament. Never again should PM's be allowed to send troops to wars without Parliamentary approval ...
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Submission – Glenn Major

Peoples Enquiry/ Independent and Peaceful Australia/ RE Webinar Submission by Glenn Major 25/11/2020/ from Future Earth Pie Project In Australia we embellish the American Alliance and a war culture by our Anzac Day celebrations and our fanatical commitment to anything American. I believe the American Alliance has no official documentation than an “all the way with LBJ” or a John Howard “can we come too” to Iraq and Afghanistan. We never don’t go to war if opportunity begs. World leaders, think that at war in a foreign land, they can kill innocent populations, and destroy their sacred ground and their proud heritage, including tourist attractions, without a conscience, if its good cause according to their intelligence. America believes it is Santa Clause on the side of right because it is a Security Council Member and Administrator of a rules-based order with a coalition which I interpret as of western sympathizers. America believes it is the ruler of the earth and embellishes cold war fears politically and in the media to create evil enemies and brainwash the public and the world that they are keeping them safe from destruction by those evil forces. Since WW2 history has shown that America has ...
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Submission – Keri James

Please let us start anew and declare a new era of peace. The time is ripe to build upon the nuclear weapons ban treaty and ban all war ...
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Submissions 53

People’s Inquiry Questionnaire

Submission to IPAN A People’s Inquiry: Exploring the case for an Independent and Peaceful Australia This ‘Peoples Inquiry’ poses two questions. The first is quite specific. What are the costs and consequences of Australia’s involvement in US-led wars and the US-Alliance? This can, although not without a degree of difficulty, be quantified. We are dealing with human lives and with economic costs and consequences. The second question; what are the alternatives, is at first glance straightforward but it becomes intensely difficult to find a realisable solution. The essence of this inquiry and of this submission is inextricably linked to how Australia sees itself and its relationship with the United States. It is also tied to a question of how this middle power can forge something that resembles an independent foreign policy stance. What is unstated in the overarching brief of the inquiry is how Australia reacts and responds to the growing tension between the USA and China. That Australia will be drawn into any such conflict would seem almost inevitable, despite all manner of claims that Australia will always act in accordance with its national interests. The cost, in human lives, wasted economic resources and the loss of peaceful economic ...
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Submission – Linda du Boulay

To gain an insight into the perception individuals hold in relation to the Australian Government’s decisions and participation in international conflict issues and its consequences for Australia’s own national security IPAN as part of the People's Inquiry has launched a short questionnaire ...
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Submission – Pamela Collett

War is hell on earth! War causes people who would normally be peaceful people, be forced to take a side and kill to protect their families honour and beliefs. Australians don't have the death penalty, yet we send our defence force off to kill people who have a different version of life that doesn't comply with our own. Who are we as Australians to judge or overrule any other countries in the world after our treatment of our own innocent indigenous people with the extravagant lifestyles we have, when compared to other countries, owing to the stolen indigenous generations lands and resources ...
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Submission – Frank Simpson

The USA Navy Secretary’s Kenneth Braithwaite proposal to reconstitute the First Fleet in the Indo-Pacific presents a serious threat to peace and stability in the area. In the last days of the current Trump administration, the proposal seems to be a unilateral “trial balloon” aimed at further challenging China. According to news reports (see attached), there appears to have been no consultation with USA allies in the region, including Singapore, which has been mentioned as a possible base. Braithwaite had evidently not even discussed the proposal with the current (recently appointed) acting USA Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. The unilateral approach of the USA, which Braithwaite noted was to maintain its dominance of the Indo-Pacific, is not in the interests of a peaceful Australia. We cannot depend on the bellicose military establishment of the USA to assist us in developing a coordinated, peaceful approach to cooperation among all countries in the region. Australia must disassociate itself as a direct ally, always siding with the USA in every conflict or potential conflict. We have been dragged into conflicts again and again by the USA, in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, with negative consequences for our own population as witnessed by the recent ...
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