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Cameron Leckie – “Not Fit for Purpose”
Current Australian defence policy is based on relying on the protection of a big power, the USA. This close relationship has drawn Australia into disastrous wars including Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Can Australia defend itself without a big power protector? Are alternative defence policies possible?
Facilitator: Dr Sue Wareham
Dr Sue Wareham OAM is President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War. She is also Secretary of Australians for War Powers Reform.
Dr Albert Palazzo is an Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales – Canberra. Formally, he was the Director of War Studies in the Australian Army Research Centre, a part of the Australian Army Headquarters. He has written articles on alternative defence for Australia including one on armed neutrality and one on planning not to lose. His next book is on climate change and its implications for national security. He hopes his writings will encourage a re-think both within the army and in the public domain of the best defence policies for Australia in current times.
Dr Sue Rosen is an historian of 34 years experience whose company, Sue Rosen Associates, provides heritage, history and research services. In the course of her research she discovered in the NSW State Archives documents detailing the planning and implementation of government policies for total defence in the face of the anticipated Japanese invasion in 1942. She discussed and reproduced these documents in her book, “Scorched Earth: Australia’s secret plan for total war under Japanese invasion in World War II”. This plan involved the total population in civil and military activities and contradicts the current negative thinking that Australians cannot defend this continent without a big power protector.
Cameron Leckie served as an officer in the Australian Army for 24 years, deploying on three operations (East Timor, Solomon Islands and Sumatra after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami). By the end of his Army career, he had come to the conclusion that the alliance with the United States was detrimental to Australia’s security, and as such should be reviewed. Since leaving the Army he has had numerous articles published on Australia’s alliance with the United States, the need for an independent defence and foreign policy and the case for war powers reform. He is a member of IPAN and an Executive Committee member of Australian’s for War Power Reform.