Stop AUKUS WA organised a peaceful protest outside the West Australian Defence Forum on March 19.
Attendees were met with chants of 鈥淢oney for housing, not for war鈥 and 鈥淣o nuclear subs, stop AUKUS now鈥. Banners read: 鈥淐hina is not the enemy, stop AUKUS now鈥, 鈥淔ight climate change not war鈥 and 鈥淜eep defence out of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics]鈥.
Stop AUKUS WA spokesperson Elizabeth Hulm said: 鈥淭he forum鈥檚 agenda perpetuates the fallacy that arming for war acts as a deterrence; that hosting and home-porting nuclear-powered submarines at HMAS Stirling, just over 6 kilometres from Rockingham, will protect us.鈥
Former Coalition Prime Minister Scott Morrison signed AUKUS,聽a multi-billion dollar military pact聽with Britain and the United States. It is a military commitment that Labor in opposition and in government has maintained. Deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles is a particularly strident advocate.
Sam Wainwright, Stop AUKUS WA spokesperson, told the protest that AUKUS 鈥渨on鈥檛 make us safer鈥. He said for WA, people and the ecology living on or near Garden Island and Cockburn Sound will potentially be exposed to radiation.
鈥淚t also increases the risk of [Australia] being a target should hostilities in the region break out.鈥
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