IPAN Patrons: Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe AO & Kellie Tranter Lawyer & Human Rights Activist
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2 April 2025
- Former PM Turnbull makes urgent call to address weakened defence of Australia
- Mr Turnbull alleges international rules-based order is dead under US President Trump
- AUKUS and Force Posture Agreement must go under the microscope
- Only one quarter of Australians are categorically opposed to a review of AUKUS
The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) attended the National Press Club on 1 April, where former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull expressed security and sovereignty concerns, also shared by IPAN.
Mr Turnball made a call for urgent action to address a weakened defence of Australia, urging a halt of AUKUS and a plan B for acquiring submarines. He also asserted that the international rules-based order is dead under US President Donald Trump.
These are strong words indeed, from a recent Prime Minister, and align with sentiments expressed by a number of Prominent former Labor politicians, including former Prime Minister Paul Keating, former Ministers for Foreign Affairs Gareth Evans and Bob Carr, former Minister for the Environment and Water Peter Garret, Former Minister for Women Carmen Lawrence, and Former Senator Doug Cameron.
In addition, current Labor Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson, has been on the record recently saying he doesn’t think it’s ‘in Australia’s national interests to be buying nuclear-powered submarines’[i]
Increasingly, security and sovereignty concerns are also being expressed by everyday Australians, with significant pockets of resistance to AUKUS and AUKUS related projects and growing awareness across the community of the Force Posture Agreement – which enables 2500 US Marines in Darwin.
‘A recent survey[ii] found 60 per cent of Australians believe President Trump’s US election victory has been bad for Australia’, stated IPAN Chair and spokesperson Ms Annette Brownlie, who attended the Press Club event.
Forty-six per cent of voters believe Australia should form closer relations with other countries, – including China, in the wake of Trump’s actions as president; and 50 per cent said Australia should avoid taking sides in conflicts between the US and China.
When asked about the AUKUS Defence agreement, 34 per cent of respondents agreed that Australia should pause or withdraw from the pact, with only 25 per cent who disagreed and 41 per cent who were undecided or neutral’. Support for AUKUS amongst the general populous is clearly diminishing
‘These poll results reflect a growing deep distrust of the US with a strong lack of trust in former assurances from the US for protection’, stated Ms Brownlie.
‘Hope is not a strategy. Assurances are not enough. Australians deserve a more certain future, and we should be looking to regional partnerships in our part of the world for a more secure and peaceful future’, stated Ms Brownlie.
‘Many prominent Australians and members of the public (ordinary citizens) believe that the time is now for a serious rethink of the US-alliance, the AUKUS pact and the little understood Force Posture Agreements that are locking us into a war against China’, concluded Ms Brownlie.
‘A rethink of the alliance should be a prominent issue in the lead up to the federal election on 3 May. IPAN urges all candidates to listen to the voting public that peace matters, and independence, sovereignty and security will all feature prominently in their voting deliberations’, stated Ms Brownlie.
ENDS
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For Media Interviews: Annette Brownlie 0431 597 256
IPAN Media Liaison: Jonathan Pilbrow 0403 611 815
Bio: Bio: Annette Brownlie is founding member of the Brisbane based community peace organisation, Just Peace Queensland, and the current (and inaugural) chairperson of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN). She has served in this position for a decade.
[i] https://thewest.com.au/politics/federal-election-2025/federal-election-2025-fremantle-mp-josh-wilson-says-aukus-isnt-in-national-interest-c-18207318
[ii] The Poll was conducted by Nine Entertainment newspapers and published on Tuesday 1 April 2025. Poll results cited in https://www.chinadailyasia.com/hk/article/608404 |
