Contributed by Joe Montero

Former Labor prime minister Paul Kesting gave the current prime Labor minister and his government another hiding at the end of last week. He Called out Anthony Albanese, foreign minister Penny Wong, and defence minister Richard Marles of abandoning traditional party values, and of adopting the foreign policies of the Scott Morrison Coalition government.

“In defence and foreign policy, this is not a Labor government,” he said in an interview on the 7.30 program about the AUKUS agreement signed with the United States and Great Britain. He added that “Australia is capable of defending itself.”

Keating has been an opponent of this deal from the beginning. There is widespread consternation about it across Australia because it commits to converting Australia into a stage to house nuclear submarines under the pretence of being Australian ones. The truth is that will remain under the control of the United States, to be aimed at aiding its domineering of the Indo=Pacific region, and to serve the containment and targeting of China.

On top of this Australia gets to pay the $368 billion bill. There will inevitably be cost blowout before the submarines see Australian soil. Australia cannot afford this, and now Washington sources confirm that these submarines may not even be delivered.

The former Labor prime minister is not the only person in the Labor Party concerned about AUKUS and the government’s foreign policy. This has been evidenced at a succession of state party conferences this year, where critical motions have been carried overwhelmingly in each case. The voting delegates bought a message from the ordinary members of the party and the party’s political support base.

Concern about the direction in which Australia is heading is deepening. This has been aggravated by the stance taken on Israel’s ongoing slaughter in Gaza. There is widespread recognition that this is because the Australian government continues to act as a surrogate of Washington. And it takes this stance despite a mobilisation of citizens supporting Palestinian rights, on a level never before seen in this country.

Melbourne for instance has seen from 40,000 to 100,000 take to the streets every Sunday for more than 10 months. The Albanese government has chosen to ignore this, and it will be to its cost.

Australia knows that the United Sates is the aggressive power and wants our country to pull back and act more independently. That this view now covers a broad spectrum of political opinion says a lot.

At the recent AUSMIN talks the Australian government committed to go a step further with AUKUS. They agreed to transfer United States nuclear material to Australian soil. This must yet be formalised by the three AUKUS countries, but given the deal at AUSMIN, this will merely be a rubber stamp. The details of this new agreement have been kept secret.

The storing of radioactive waste will not be limited to that coming from the submarines. The real objective is the stationing of a major naval and overall military presence, and this requires a nuclear industry and waste management on the scene. Australia is being dragged towards this.

Another leg to the new agreement is the possibility of supplying Australia with second hand submarines. Whether this is a replacement for the AUKUS ones of an addition hasn’t been declared. Either way, Australia still gets to pay the full cost.

Don’t expect a Peter Dutto led alternative government to pull in another direction. The only difference is that it will follow the same path more aggressively. This is why he is so zealous about nuclear power.