MOTIONS

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (16:59): I want to begin by acknowledging the work of my colleague Senator Shoebridge on this issue. Nobody is more across their brief and nobody understands this issue more than him in this place. His concerns reflect the concerns that so many Australians have with this AUKUS deal that is tying us ever closer to the United States and is, in fact, making us less safe.

It's not only that but a staggering waste of public wealth and fundamentally betrays Australia's interests. There is a stultifying consensus in this parliament, and amongst DFAT and Defence—and much of the Australian media, I might add—on our defence and foreign policies. This hinges on an unquestioning belief that the United States is our indispensable ally, that we share values and interests and that US bases and AUKUS make us safer.

I want to put on the record, along with Senator Shoebridge, that the Greens do not share these beliefs. While that might make us lonely in this place, we know that we are increasingly joined by supporters across the community. The community is watching how the world works.

They are seeing US aggression, lawlessness and wars, and they are asking questions—that are never answered—about what that means for our alliance with the United States. We need to ask ourselves: Why did the United States actually sign the AUKUS deal? What are their interests here in Australia?

The United States has lost its hegemony in the western Pacific. Its string of bases, from South Korea through Japan, to Okinawa, to the Philippines and out to Pacific islands such as Guam, are increasingly vulnerable in any major conflict with China. Because of this vulnerability, the United States has decided to locate a far more significant portion of its military assets and military forces here in Australia.

That's what's behind Labor's decision to spend $8 billion to build the United States a nuclear submarine base at HMAS Stirling, off Perth, and its plans for another base on the east coast. It explains the location of those thousands of marines in Darwin, the expansion of Pine Gap and North West Cape's spying communications stations, the nuclear capable B-52 bombers being stationed at RAAF Tindal in the NT and the prepositioning of US weapons stockpiles in regional Victoria.

This expansion in Australia is not a sign of US strength. It's actually the clearest statement of declining US power and increased US vulnerability. And who is paying the price for that?

Australians are. We're in a housing crisis right now. We need a massive build of public housing, but, instead of spending money on public houses for Australians, the first thing the government did when they came back after the election was to pass a bill to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building houses for US military personnel.

That's not looking after Australians. The billions of dollars that are going to AUKUS that, as my colleague Senator Shoebridge has pointed out, are not going to make us safer are, in fact, going to make us less safe. Every dollar of that money that goes to AUKUS is a dollar that doesn't get spent to reduce the aged-care waiting list, to lift the people in this country on welfare out of poverty, to increase the pension or JobSeeker, to provide the money that we need to encourage the states to implement rent caps, or to get dental into Medicare.

I'm certain that everyone out there in the community knows what they would rather spend that money on than sending billions of dollars to the United States. People have watched, on their phones, ICE agents dragging people out of their homes. People have watched, on their phones, what US support for Israel has done in Gaza.

People have watched, on their phones, the fallout of the US starting a war with Iran—a war that we did not need to have. People see on their phones every day the unhinged comments and statements that the Commander in Chief of the US makes every single day. This is the president who, upon coming back to power, pardoned every single person involved in trying to stage a coup on the US government.

This is a president who repeatedly implies that he might like to seek a third term, even though it's not in the US constitution. This is a president who has gutted virtually every public service department in the capital and installed sycophants. If any of you have spent any time watching any of the hearings that take place when the people that he has installed in security and defence come before congress and senate committees, surely you can see that they are all unhinged and that they don't respect the rule of law.

They definitely don't respect international law. A president and a government that respect international law do not put sanctions on judges in the International Criminal Court. This is the government that our government and the coalition and One Nation want to join us to at the hip.

For the privilege of that, we get to give them over $300 billion. What a crock! It'd be farcical if it weren't so serious.

Senator Shoebridge, in great detail and very clearly, has set out in this debate why we should all be concerned about this. You talk to anyone in the community about AUKUS, and it doesn't have a lot of friends. The people who are championing AUKUS are the government and the coalition and One Nation in this place.

But out there, out in the community, people can see it for what it is. Prime Minister Morrison got sold a pup, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed up to the same pup. A prime minister and a government that had the courage to stand up to bullies would have turned around and taken the opportunity, when they came to government, to reassess this whole deal, but instead they are blindly continuing down a path that makes this country less safe.

It's the same pattern we see when they won't stand up to the gambling industry or the fossil fuel industry. It's cowardly. And the people who will pay the price for this cowardice are Australian citizens.

You can't come into this place and genuinely and legitimately stand here and say that a government's highest duty to the public is to keep them safe and continue down the path of AUKUS. I want to thank Senator Shoebridge for bringing this motion into this place. I'm not surprised that members of the government and the coalition and One Nation aren't here to speak to it.

Senator Shoebridge: They're in hiding. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: They're in hiding because they have signed up to a dud deal that takes money out of the pocket of every single Australian and stops them from getting the things that they really need—cost-of-living relief, secure housing, fully funded schools, well-funded health and hospitals, timely aged care and not getting chucked off the NDIS.

Every one of those decisions is a government decision to make a saving while billions of dollars go out the door for a dud deal that makes Australians less safe.