2025-03-22
The Greens will reallocate $4 billion from over $77 billion in savings from cancelling AUKUS and a number of US weapons purchases towards domestic production capabilities of defence material strictly for defensive purposes. This is a strategy to end AUKUS, remove our reliance on US, UK and Israeli weapons supplies and disengage us from the dangerous Trump-led US military.
Importantly $73 billion of the savings from this announcement, and the hundreds of billions more of future savings from cancelling AUKUS, can be reinvested in social and environmental programs to address climate change and inequality.
Currently, the Australian Defence Force is designed to work interoperably with the US military, not to defend Australia. This shows in Defence’s procurement. Purchasing a low quantity of large, highly technical, and overwhelmingly US equipment has become the norm, for example, Black Hawks, M1A2 tanks and, of course, the AUKUS nuclear submarines. The Greens are committed to ending these projects.
$2.4 billion will be saved from cancelling the M1A2 tanks and the Black Hawk projects. The MIA2 tank has no role in defending Australia, it is designed only to be deployed as part of a US military force in large-scale land engagements in Asia or the Middle East. The Black Hawk is a 50-year-old design with the US phasing into a new type. This alone will cause supply issues and highlight the overreliance on US technology. Black Hawks are also very expensive when compared to other utility helicopters. There are other less expensive and better options. The remaining money for reallocation will come from the estimated spending of $375 billion on AUKUS, which we now know from the recent budget this includes $18 billion over five years alone.
Genuine Australian defence capabilities have been ignored by both Labor and the Coalition to fund a relatively small number of highly technical, foreign-controlled, expensive and high-risk systems. Modern conflicts have shown that relatively inexpensive defensive equipment, in the form of uncrewed aerial and marine platforms, to short and medium-range defensive missiles, provide more security than a small amount of highly technical and expensive equipment sourced from overseas. They also signal to the rest of the world that we are a force for peace, as we cannot use these as part of a US war.
By scrapping AUKUS and disengaging ourselves from the US military, and instead investing a modest amount in defensive weapons, we are also signalling to our neighbours that Australia’s Defence Force is equipped and designed to defend Australia, but not threaten our neighbours. This is an important contribution to regional peace and reducing regional arms expenditure.
Importantly with this relatively modest reinvestment from defence savings, we not only create a “Plan B” to end AUKUS, we can also remove Australia from the global weapons trade and end our reliance on the US and Israeli armaments industries.
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Spokesperson for Defence, said:
“For decades, the major parties have based Australia’s defence policy on dependence and integration with the US military. This was a mistake.
“Our defence policy shouldn’t be based on Donald Trump coming to our rescue.
“Australia cannot continue to waste money on multi-billion dollar US weapons platforms, designed not to defend Australia but supplement Donald Trump’s military.
“M1A2 Tanks and the Black Hawks share a lot of the same issues. They are both supplied by the US with little to no sovereign input, are expensive and outdated. Like AUKUS, this equipment is much more about signalling our loyalty to the US than defending Australia.
“There are two obvious lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Low-cost defence equipment, such as drones that can be produced locally and at scale, are effective at territorial defence, and you cannot trust the US, especially under Trump.
“To seriously decouple the ADF from the US and to proudly take an independent foreign policy, we need to develop sufficient sovereign capabilities. Unlike AUKUS though, these capabilities should be to defend Australia, not threaten our neighbours.
“In defence, what you buy and produce indicates your policy intent far more clearly than your media spin. What Liberal and Labor are screaming with their purchases is an unquestioning loyalty to the US and complete contracting out of our foreign policy to Washington.
“Australia’s most significant strategic asset is our relative geographical isolation. The major parties have made that into a liability by signing us up to US force projection, making distance an obstacle to overcome not an asset to work with.
“Australia needs to have a defence force that is about that, defending ourselves, not threatening our neighbours.
“If Australia wants an independent foreign policy and to detach ourselves from Donald Trump, we need to have a clear alternative. The major parties aren’t interested in that, the Greens are.”
*This document is updated with further data and details following the 2024/5 budget announcement