Peace & Security Updates – Australian Peace and Security Forum

September 2025

Is the world about to embark on a new nuclear arms race?

On the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing, there are an estimated 12,200 nuclear warheads in the world and 2,000 are on “high operational alert” according to Gem Romuld, Australian Director of the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
There are 9 nuclear states but 90% of the nuclear weapons are held by the US and Russia and the sole remaining nuclear agreement between these two nuclear states is due to expire in 2026, Gem told the recent APSF.”
The 55 year old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is grid locked in negotiations making the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that came into force in 2021 “the best chance of providing guard rails for these devastating weapons and the AUKUS agreement”. 94 states have signed and 73 state are parties to the treaty.
“We must encourage the Labor Government to sign and ratify this treaty as they have promised on several occasions. This time they must sign. Two thirds of Australians want the Government to sign this pathway to safety” explained Gem. “In AUKUS we have made a trade where in exchange for a US vessel we become a US vassal” said Dave Sweeny, anti-nuclear campaign director for the Australian Conservation Foundation the second speaker at the webinar.
The AUKUS nuclear powered submarines are costing us $33 million every day for 30 years: Australia has already paid $5B to the US and $5B to the UK and allocated $8B for development of the Stirling Base in Freemantle.
From an environmental perspective, AUKUS raises three major issues: safety, radioactive waste management and regulatory rigour. “Every sector has incidents and accidents,” commented Dave and nuclear submarines are no exception. In a report by Friends of the Earth, the UK Department of Defence concedes that since the AUKUS deal was signed there have been 12 incidents of actual or high potential for radioactive release. “Between 1982 and 2023, researchers have documented 170 interactions between civilian ships and nuclear submarines. Nuclear submarines increase complexity and risk to ports, port communities and oceans and coastal zones as well as leaving radioactive waste,’ he said.Dave Sweeny pointed out that “there is no social licence for AUKUS. We were never asked about our biggest spend. It is not inevitable; it is not desirable; and may well fall over. We need a review of this deeply flawed and deeply disturbing plan” he concluded.Dr Sue Wareham OAM, President of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) moderated the webinar and concluded by adding her voice for an AUKUS Inquiry and encouraging all to be persistent in their efforts to ban nuclear weapons.
A video of the webinar is available here.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians want peace and security for Palestinians

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets across Australia to call for an end to the war on Gaza and for international action to bring peace and security to the region. Many Australians are deeply frustrated at the lack of action by the Federal Government to sanction Israel and place an embargo on arms sales as well as the moves by state governments to restrict the rallies.Australians are shocked and horrified by the genocide in Gaza and the starvation of children and the vulnerable. More than half a million people in Gaza, about a quarter of its population, face catastrophic levels of hunger, with many at risk of dying from malnutrition-related causes, according to a recent independent food aid report. Peace and security seem a faint hope.Australians expect our government to do more than offer words of concern. Recognizing the State of Palestine is important step towards a two state solution but it must be more than just words. Why have only two Israeli Ministers and not the whole Netanyahu Government been sanctioned for the genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank? Why does Australia still export arms and components into the supply stream for the Israeli Defence Forces? Why does the Defence Department have a nearly $1b contract with Elbit Systems, one of the largest Israeli arms manufacturers and one which makes illegal white phosphorus bombs which have been used in Gaza? That contract should be cancelled immediately.The government’s contribution of $110 million for humanitarian aid for Gazans is welcome but what else can Australia do to end the blockade of humanitarian aid for starving people? The thousands of Australians turning out each week in support peace and security for Palestine and Israel want action from the Government.This month, the one-year deadline set by the UN General Assembly for Israel to withdraw from its illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank expires. If Israel has not complied with the wishes of the international community and withdrawn, will Australia implement sanctions and an embargo?

An observer at the recent Bathurst rally, former political scientist Dr Tony Smith observed in Pearls and Irritations that “Governments at all levels should encourage such events (rallies) because they have a duty towards the mental health of the people they represent and such rallies keep us all sane. As silence implies complicity, it is vital that people of conscience associate themselves not with the powerful oppressors of Palestine but with the powerless victims.”
Russell Rollason AM

Australia fails to join 79 countries expressing support for the International Criminal Court

After the US authorised expanded sanctions against staff of the ICC, 79 countries signed a statement reaffirming their “continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the ICC.” While the UK, Canada, Timor Leste and Vanuatu were among the signatories from around the world, Australia was strangely absent.

Australia is a party to the Rome Statute and ratified the treaty to establish the ICC on July 1, 2002, implementing the Rome Statute into its domestic law. Yet, Australia failed to express its support for this vital pillar of the international justice system. It is the ICC that issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Last year when the US sanctioned several judges of the ICC, Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rights asked “Will they (the 125 State parties) defend the court’s independence and the rights of victims of international crimes, or allow intimidation by powerful states to dictate who deserves justice?”
(The Guardian 21 August 2024)

Eight year campaign to stop the University of Melbourne’s new campus for weapons research wins a reprieve.

The University’s Vice President, Katerina Kapobassis announced on 2 September that the University had “decided to pause the Fisherman’s Bend Campus project…and it will be reassessed as part of the development of the University’s next 10 year strategy from 2023”.Students and staff have fought vigorously against the University’s partnership with major weapons companies which are “profiting billions of dollars from arming Israel” in Gaza through what the students dubbed “a weapons campus”.On 7.2 hectares at Fishermans Bend in Port Melbourne, just 1km south of the CBD, the University has plans to turn the vacant former site of the General Motors Holden factory into its next campus.
The university is collaborating with BAE Systems, the world’s 7th largest weapons manufacturer, Boeing, the world’s fifth largest weapons manufacturer and Lockheed Martin, a company involved in creating nuclear weapons.“The University claims to be on about the big social challenges and trying to make the world better,” said Tilman Ruff, a University of Melbourne honorary Associate Professor whose campaign against nuclear weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, reports Rohan Smith in News.com.“It’s hard to see how getting in bed with war profiteers and particularly makers of now illegal weapons of mass destructions fits with trying to do good in the world for the betterment of humanity. It’s academic prostitution,” said Professor Ruff.

Killing of aid workers reaches all time high

383 aid workers killed in global hotspots in 2024. The highest numbers of major attacks last year were in the Palestinian territories with over half or 194 deaths, followed by Sudan (64), South Sudan (47), Nigeria (31) and Congo (27). As for deaths, Sudan, where civil war is still raging, was second to Gaza and the West Bank with 60 aid workers losing their lives in 2024. That was more than double the 25 aid worker deaths in 2023.Australia is leading a group of countries to create a global Declaration on the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel. It aims to build a coalition for the safety of aid workers who provide the food, water and medicine that civilians need to survive. A strong declaration and effective action is well overdue.Thanks to Future Trends, August 2025, Institute for Economics and Peace.

Australia needs an independent strategy for national security

Eight months into the second Trump presidency, the only certainty from Australia’s ‘great and powerful friend’ seems to be that we cannot depend on our foremost military ally.This is the argument underpins The Big Fix: Rebuilding Australia’s National Security, by Albert Palazzo, one of Australia’s leading military historians. Palazzo offers a radical reimagining of Australian defence, proposing ‘the nation’s first grand strategy’ for national security. Palazzo argues that Australia does not need great power allies for protection and instead should refocus on building Australia’s defensive capabilities. ‘The Big Fix’ adds to the growing consensus among defence commentators that Australia must develop an independent strategy for national security.Palazzo’s final chapter offers a radical reworking of the ADF to ensure it can respond to both the potential conflict with China and the reality of a changing climate. He lays out in detail the specific programs that should be adopted, and which planned acquisitions should be cancelled.More significant even than the proposed restructure is Palazzo’s emphasis on the consequences of climate change as the primary challenge for the future ADF: with mass displacement, resource scarcity, and increasing conflicts in our neighbourhood as vulnerable states collapse under the pressure of this ‘threat multiplier’
Extract from a review by Mia Martin Hobbs. The Big Fix: Rebuilding Australia’s National Security (Melbourne University Press, 2025) Dr Al Palazzo is a member of APSF.