Outside of Sydney’s Town Hall last Saturday, peace protesters from the Anti Bases Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition built a tank made of colourful balloons.
Meanwhile, 14,000 kilometres away, at the coral reef off the coast of Rockhampton, 22,000 US and Australian troops are taking part in the world’s largest military exercise, Operation Talisman Sabre, firing live missiles into the surrounding ocean.
The month long joint training exercise has been held each year since 2007, and is being protested by a peace convergence at Shoal Bay.
The Anti Bases Campaign claims that the firing of live missiles threatens dugongs, green turtles, whales and dolphins, and that unexploded bombs are left long after the troops have left the bases.
Australian Defence Force’s spokesperson for Operation Talisman Sabre Brigadier Bob Brown says that the exercise is conducted with consultation of locals and adheres to an environmental impact study.
Another point of contention is allocation of taxpayer funds.
Brigadier Brown says budget allocations are the government’s decision, but ultimately says the $100 million spent on the month long exercise is good value, and money well spent.
“Both sides gain significant benefit from Australia’s enduring defence relationship with the US,” Brig Brown says.
“It plays an important role in the Asia Pacific region that we’re in, certainly from Australia’s point of view we get some significant benefits in terms of security.
The current Australian military budget is $26 billion per year, or around $70 million per day.
City of Sydney Green’s councilor Irene Doutney took part in the peace convergence at Shoalwater Bay in 2007. She told Sydney’s peace rally a cut in military spending could free up much needing dollars to go into international aid, disaster relief and stronger support for the diplomatic corps.
“We need to be establishing cooperative and understanding relations with other nations. We need to be acting as peacemakers, not just followers of American aggressive interventions,” Cr Doutney said.
“Australia as a nation has no reason to go down this path when we are an isolated country surrounded by water and we have no neighbouring enemies. It is a path of pure folly which embroils us in wars that feed the potential for international terrorism and can make us a target.
More info: www.antibases.org and stopwarcoalition.org
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