IPAN Patrons: Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe AO & Kellie Tranter Lawyer, Human Rights Activist
MEDIA RELEASE 11 July 2025
National Webinar 2-4pm AEST, Sunday 13 July
Speakers will include:
Kellie Tranter (Declassified Australia)
Retired Major General Michael Smith
Doug Cameron (Labor Against War, former ALP Senator)
On Sunday 13 July, the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) will hold a large Public Webinar to launch a petition calling on the Australian Government to cancel AUKUS, re-think its defence strategy and to assert Australia’s independence. Link is:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81539477253?pwd=74MYQnJFS4bybmJQJzDgEe9xHI3uwV.1
‘The call comes in response to major community concerns about Australia’s destiny being locked more tightly to the United States than ever’, stated Mr Bevan Ramsden, long term peace activist and spokesperson for IPAN.
‘The USA Government under President Donald Trump has now dropped any pretence of building a better world, showing that the USA will act only in the interests of its corporations, above its own people and citizens of the world’, stated Mr Ramsden.
‘Recent Australian governments have unwisely signed two agreements that make Australia a military appendage of the USA: AUKUS, first signed in 2021 and superseded in 2024 by AUKUS.2 and the Force Posture Agreement (FPA)[i] signed in 2014’, stated Mr Ramsden.
‘Under President Trump, we now know that all guarantees are off, and all alliances are conditional on USA ascendancy and interests – not ours’, said Mr Ramsden.
‘The USA’s self-interest has been clear through the wars of the past 75 years and now more and more Australians are questioning the reliability of the USA as a military ‘partner’ and ‘ally’’, said Mr Ramsden.
As a response to these widespread public concerns, IPAN will initiate the following public petition on Sunday at the webinar:
Public Call to the Australian Government
We the undersigned, call on our government to cancel the AUKUS and Force Posture Agreements to stop:
- Nuclear submarines using Australian ports
- Nuclear submarine waste being stored on Australian territory
- Nuclear capable bombers operating from Australia
- Use of Australian territory as a base for US war operations
- Australian cities becoming military targets.
IPAN invites all members of the public to attend this webinar and to sign the petition at PublicCall
ENDS
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Media Interviews: Bevan Ramsden 0418 697 528
Media Liaison: Jonathan Pilbrow 0403 611 815
Bio: Bevan Ramsden is an ex-telecommunications engineer and telecommunications teacher and a long-time peace activist going back to the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign and campaign against conscription in the 1970s. Bevan was a member of the IPAN coordinating committee for a number of years and is the editor of its monthly publication, Voice.
[i] The Force Posture Agreement (FPA):
- Allows the USA to use Australia as an operational base in its wars.
- Allows the USA to operate nuclear-capable bombers and warships from Australia, without Australian control, and without declaring any nuclear weapons on board.
- Automatically makes us a party to any USA war actions.