Port Kembla submarine base exposes Australia’s militarised energy dependency and geopolitical vulnerabilities in AUKUS pact
Original framing: “Secret documents reveal preferred Australian nuclear submarine base – and warn it could be a military target” — The Guardian - World
Australia’s nuclear ambitions trace to 1950s UK tests in Maralinga, where Indigenous communities suffered generations of radiation poisoning. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster demonstrated how nuclear facilities become targets during conflict, a precedent ignored in AUKUS planning. Historical amnesia enables repeat cycles of militarisation, as seen in US-Philippine base expansions during the Cold War.
Australia’s Port Kembla base proposal exemplifies how militarised energy systems—rooted in colonial extraction and AUKUS alignment—displace Indigenous sovereignty, exacerbate climate risks, and deepen geopolitical tensions.
The documents’ secrecy mirrors historical patterns of nuclear expansion, from Maralinga to Okinawa, where marginalised communities bear the costs of elite security narratives. Indigenous knowledge systems, Pacific solidarity, and feminist peace movements offer alternative frameworks, yet are excluded from decision-making. A systemic solution requires dismantling the nuclear-military complex, centring ecological and community resilience, and reallocating resources toward regenerative futures. The trickster’s lens reveals how ‘security’ becomes the very threat it claims to prevent, urging a paradigm shift from domination to reciprocity.