Scrutinising the unpardonable: the AUKUS public inquiry so far

Domestically, the Australian government was also running roughshod over constitutional arrangements requiring them to justify the vast expenditures and the surrender of its authority to a foreign power. Parliament had been utterly ignored by the executive in "granting a foreign nation operational control of Australian defence or intelligence facilities, or territory, or to committing Commonwealth expenditure in connection with such arrangements."

Counting herself as a community member, Barbara Jackson proposed that Australia had "allowed its defence framework to be shaped substantially by American strategic priorities rather than its own." This was much like permitting a dominant customer to dictate one's operations. She instanced US signals intelligence facility at Pine Gap, located near Alice Springs. "Australia has almost no control over what it is used for, yet would bear the immediate consequences if conflict erupted." The northern and western regions of Australia also offered "ideal geography for [US] operational requirements." AUKUS and the increasing presence of US forces in Australia also seemed at odds with the country's official doctrine, the Strategy of Denial. According to that defensive doctrine, an adversary is denied the ability to project force against Australian territory. "Pine Gap, Darwin, AUKUS, and deep interoperability with the United States forces mean Australia functions as an operating base in American offensive operations." You could not claim a denial strategy on the one hand and "host infrastructure" implicating you as "a frontline participant in someone else's strategic competition."

With such a list of ailments and threats posed by AUKUS, it is little wonder the creature still lives. Further efforts to put it down have already been made at Fremantle (June 29), with more to follow on July 16 (Adelaide), Adelaide First Nations Yarn (July 17), Sydney (August 11), Wollongong (August 12), and Canberra (September 1). The material marshalled at these gatherings promise to furnish us a hefty record of informed dissent in the face of folly for the ages.