Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise, along with my colleagues, to contribute to the debate on these two bills: the Defence Trade Controls Amendment Bill 2024 and the Defence Amendment (Safeguarding Australia's Military Secrets) Bill 2024. I'd like to commend my colleagues for the excellent contributions that they've made so far, including Senator Faruqi, who just detailed the truly scary impacts on our research sector that this bill might have, this bill from a Labor government who is meant to be championing the interests of researchers and who is meant to be on the side of our tertiary sector. I'm going to go into more detail later, but I echo and endorse the remarks that Senator Faruqi made about the shivers that this should be sending down the spine of our research sector.

It's not just an attack on our research sector; it's an attack on any semblance or chance of this nation having an independent foreign policy, one that shamelessly puts Australia's interests first. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that we see this absolute capitulation by this Labor government to the demands of Washington, but I remain incredibly disappointed that that is the case.

These two bills are a part of a suite of AUKUS related legislation, and the object of those bills is to align very closely Australia's military export system with the US. The effect of that would be to restrict Australia and cut us off from the rest of the world, which my colleagues have also gone through, and to tie us to the US. This is on the eve of Trump becoming president again. Really? You want to pick this time in history to more closely align us with the US? Honestly, any ordinary person would have their jaw on the floor that this is a proposition from our current government. The reason for these two bills is that they're a precondition for Australia to receive nuclear submarines, another questionable decision, which, frankly, I don't think the vast majority of community members are on board with either.

These two bills would effectively create an export licence-free bubble between the US and the UK pertaining to military and dual-use goods. But the effect of that is that Australia will be effectively cut off from the rest of the world with harsher and expanded restrictions on working with people outside that US and UK Anglo bubble. We talk a lot about structural racism—I might clarify; the Greens talk a lot about structural racism—and here we go again, aligning ourselves with these Anglo-bubble countries with the effect that we will seriously disbenefit research work being conducted in other non-Anglo nations. If this bill were to pass in its current state, researchers and businesses working with folk in countries like South Korea or India on the technology of research that is dual-use would have to stop. They'd have to get approval from the minister or risk ten years imprisonment. Seriously, the proportionality of this is just outlandish.

The industry and higher ed sector have rightly raised some serious concerns that this new bill would need them to apply for thousands of new permits to do basic research and product development. This has, of course, drawn widespread criticism because the bill risks creating a significant disincentive for most of the world to work with Australian researchers and to trade critical technology. We have been, at times in our history, on the forefront of cutting-edge research. We then had a period of Liberal government where funding for research was slashed and only industry driven research was considered permissible or legitimate. But we risk, with this bill, further isolating ourselves from that pool of knowledge. I think that's a very disappointing, very sad and, frankly, really dangerous course of action, in particular given the state of global politics at the very minute.

The second bill that we're debating, in a conjoined fashion today, the safeguarding Australia's military secrets bill, seeks to introduce harsher punishments and more ministerial powers to punish ADF personnel who train or work with certain foreign militaries and government entities. It's already illegal for defence personnel to disclose military secrets. But this bill would require defence personnel and public servants to obtain authorisation before they work with another government entity, not including Five Eyes nations. This is all part of a push to integrate Australian regulation with that of the US as part of AUKUS because there are concerns about Australia not being able to keep nuclear secrets. Well, how very ironic that we're currently in a faux debate where the opposition is once again trying to champion nuclear as some alleged energy security proposition when we are at quite an imperilled status of global relations.

I think my main objection to these bills is that we keep getting told what to do by the US, by Washington, we keep getting our instructions, and this government says: 'Oh, you want us to jump? Well, how high would you like us to Trump—to jump?' No pun intended there. I just misspoke and said, 'How high would you like us to Trump?' That's quite apposite really, considering what we're staring down the barrel of.

Both of these bills will be needed for AUKUS to proceed, and they are designed to more closely align us with the US. But AUKUS is sinking, and if the Labor government and the coalition continue down this path, we're all going to sink with it. The Albanese government is effectively turning Australia into a US state, and it's turning us into an arm of the US military.

Now, my colleague, Senator Whish-Wilson, spoke about the litany of ills that the US military has perpetrated on whistleblowers, in particular on Julian Assange, and I'd like to associate myself with his remarks. This is a very dangerous course of action that this government is proposing to take our country down the path of. And it's kind of ironic because we're likely not even going to get Australian owned nuclear submarines, but we're going to be spending $365 billion of public money to destabilise our region, to become at once a parking lot and a dumping ground for US and UK nuclear subs. This will make us less safe in the process; it will paint an even bigger target on us.

The Albanese Labor government has already promised to give nearly $10 billion to the US and the UK militaries as part of AUKUS. We are literally funnelling Australian public money, taxpayer dollars, into a foreign military industry. And the $4.7 billion that's going to the US submarine manufacturing industry is not just for conventionally armed submarines, it's also to train and equip the workforce to make nuclear armed submarines. Is it any wonder that 80 per cent of Australians don't want our primary ally to be the US, and yet AUKUS ensures that that is what would happen. AUKUS stops us from engaging with the world independently.

The US and the UK see Australia as a sucker who will give their militaries money, and who will allow them to keep their nuclear submarines here under the guise of AUKUS. We could do so much better. The sheer volume of public money that's being spent on this just baffles me. The $3.68 billion on nuclear submarines will make us less safe, will stir tensions in our region and is not in our interests. Every time I hear the volume of this, I'm floored. We quibble about funding housing. We quibble about funding frontline domestic and family violence services. We're always urging the government to fund things that will actually help people, and we're often told that we're too broke to do that—'the country's too broke to do that'. Well, $368 billion—you don't bat an eyelid when it comes to giving away that amount of money, and it is absolutely shameful. It is effectively a raid, a $368 billion raid on money that could go on public education, on health, on housing, on climate action, on First Nations justice, on income support for ordinary Australians who are in a cost-of-living crisis. It is obscene that this government is dedicating $368 billion to nuclear submarines to hitch us closer to the US right on the eve of another Trump presidency, when Australians are genuinely struggling and deserve so much better from their government. They voted for a change and they're not getting the change, and so they're scratching their heads. Is it any wonder that the vote for smaller parties and Independents is on the rise, because they're sick of the Coles and Woolies of politics agreeing on everything. You just put the words 'national security' on it and the capitulation to each other is complete. You might as well just merge and be done with the pretence.

When people are living in tents and when rent rises and mortgage increases are pushing people closer and closer to homelessness, families closer and closer to homelessness, it is just obscene that you are giving $368 billion of money to nuclear powered submarines. People can't find a bulk-billing GP, and yet we're going to be spending money on nuclear submarines. They can't afford mental health or dental health care, and yet this government is choosing to spend $368 billion on submarines. Young people are deciding not to do further study and go to university because they can't afford to, and yet this government is spending $368 billion on nuclear submarines.

As a more recent example, just last week the government said, 'Yes, we're going to pay superannuation on paid parental leave,' which I take an interest in as the Greens spokesperson for women. 'Yes, okay, we'll give you superannuation on paid parental leave as the last remaining workplace entitlement that doesn't already have super paid on it, but you're going to have to wait because we can't find the measly few hundred million dollars to spend on mostly women—on new parents. We can't find that money to pay super on paid parental leave. You're going to have to wait until the year after because we're too poor to do the right thing.' Maybe it's because you're giving $368 billion of money to nuclear powered submarines and hitching our wagon even more closely to the US.

It is such an affront to decency, and it is an insult to anyone who voted for this government in the hope of change and in the hope of a different policy approach. Where is your courage? Where is your conviction? Where are you listening to the community's pleas and protestations that they're really in strife? We are in a genuine cost-of-living crisis, and they don't want these pitiful changes around the margins. They want some serious systemic reform that addresses the wealth inequality and the underfunding of universal services that have plagued us for decades now. Those are the issue that they want their government to be working on, not buddying up to a future Trump-led US and wasting $368 billion on nuclear submarines. It beggars belief that we are here having to point this out, and yet the bipartisan approach to anything that's just got the words 'national security' in it—you just wave a little sign over it that says 'national security', and then no-one is prepared to touch it. Well, we're calling it out, and we think that there are any number of better ways to spend $368 billion.

You could fully fund frontline family and domestic violence services. The women's safety sector have been begging for double the amount of funding that they have been receiving under this government to help everyone who seeks them. They're not-for-profit services; they're not pocketing that profit. They're simply wanting to help people who reach out for their help. There are not enough beds. There's not enough legal support. There's not enough crisis support. There's not enough counselling, because this government is underfunding women. It's underfunding frontline family and domestic violence services, and yet it can find all of this dough for nuclear submarines. Likewise, maternity and termination services—women are struggling to get basic health care, and yet this government is too broke to fix hospitals. It's too broke to fund women's health because it's wasting $368 billion on nuclear submarines.

This government is too broke to build a serious amount of public housing and to freeze rents in the way that it should to seriously address the housing crisis that is at stratospheric levels and is now touching all corners of the community. You're too broke to do that because you're wasting $368 billion on nuclear submarines. Abolishing student debt—a seriously important cost-of-living measure that would also have the benefit of encouraging more students to undertake tertiary study—no, we can't afford to do that. We're too poor. But we've got your $368 billion for nuclear submarines.

I see there's some talk about maybe making child care $10 a day. The Greens' proposal has been for early childhood education to be provided free, in a not-for-profit manner, subsidised by the government. It is a public good that both helps children and helps parents get back into the workforce. It is a good investment, and yet this government is too broke to do that. It doesn't want to do that, because it's spending $368 billion on nuclear submarines. University and TAFE could be free like they used to be. Some of the folk in this chamber got it for free, and now we are putting it as a hurdle in the way of students because this government says that it's too broke to make uni and TAFE free because it's wasting it on nuclear submarines. What a disappointment this government is turning out to be. For shame!