AUKUS ties nuclear anchor around Australia's neck

Three years ago, on a sunny mid-March day at San Diego’s Point Loma U.S. naval base, Anthony Albanese signed Australia up to quite possibly the worst deal in our history.

Beside our aviator glass-wearing PM on that day, were the then-British PM Rishi Sunak and U.S. President Joe Biden.

Both have since departed the stage. AUKUS needs to as well.

Since Federal Labor – without independent scrutiny or consultation – tied a nuclear anchor around its neck, the global situation has worsened, and nuclear threats and risks have increased.

This was reflected in the January 2026 risk assessment, which concluded the Doomsday Clock was sitting at 85 seconds to midnight. This is the closest point to Armageddon in the initiative’s nearly eight-decade existence — closer than during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the chilliest stretches of the Cold War.

The February 2026 expiry of the NewStart arms constraint agreement between Russia and the USA – the two nations that hold more than 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons – means that for the first time in 50 years, there are no constraints on nuclear weapons numbers or deployment.

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Multiple nuclear-weapon states are currently involved in active conventional wars:

Israel vs Palestine and Iran;
USA vs Iran; and
Russia and North Korea vs Ukraine.

Senior military and political figures have threatened the use of nuclear weapons in some of these conflicts.

In March, France embraced an elevated role for nuclear weapons in Europe and for the first time flagged 'a nuclear strike could be carried out as a warning'.

Confidence in international institutions, multilateral non-proliferation instruments and humanitarian law is low, with nuclear-weapon states increasingly viewing compliance with such mechanisms as optional.

Against this background of dramatically elevated nuclear threat, Australia is increasingly stepping towards a nuclear-focused defence posture.

The AUKUS military pact with two nuclear-weapon state allies is being rapidly advanced and calls for greater scrutiny and debate.

AUKUS upgrades to HMAS Stirling (WA) and RAAF Tindal (NT) are being fast-tracked, and raise the very real prospect of these facilities providing operational support and enabling potential dual-use (conventional and nuclear) submarines and B52 bombers.

The Australian Government's policy is to accept nuclear ambiguity from our AUKUS partners — in effect, we don’t ask and they don’t tell whether visiting submarines, ships or aircraft are carrying or capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

At Senate Estimates in December 2025 senior Defence officials, including the newly appointed Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Greg Moriarty, acknowledged there is "no impediment" under Australian policy or treaty obligations to the visit of dual-capable platforms — an aircraft, submarine or missile designed to carry either conventional weapons or nuclear weapons — and that Australia would continue to respect the U.S. policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons.

There are also growing calls for clarity on the role and support played by key joint U.S.-Australian military facilities — especially Pine Gap in the NT — in providing support for U.S. military operations in Iran.

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These questions are fundamental to our security and sovereignty, but they are ones the Australian Government prefers to avoid.

Australia can and must take real steps to "lower the temperature".

As a middle power with a bipartisan history of often constructive engagement in international arms control and efforts to reduce weapons of mass destruction, Australia has both the ability and responsibility to take clear action to reduce nuclear threats.

Meaningful steps along this path include:

Clearly committing to not acquire our own, or enable our allies' nuclear weapons on or in Australian lands, seas or skies.
Signing the Australian civil society born U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In 2018, the Labor national platform committed to this action. It is time to advance this critical AUKUS guardrail.
Holding a public or open parliamentary inquiry into the AUKUS arrangement — including its risks, costs and alternatives.

(It is important to note that the Australian Peace and Security Forum have begun an inquiry, in the absence of any parliamentary one, and this initiative deserves support.)

Withholding Australian uranium supply to nuclear weapon states with which we have bilateral sales arrangements, that are not meeting their international disarmament obligations. This includes France, UK, USA, China and India — note there is a precedent with Russia as the Abbott Government suspended uranium sales in September 2014 in response to the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17.
Outlining the rules of engagement and the checks and balances around the provision of targeting and military operational data supplied from Australian joint facilities.
Applying diplomatic pressure to nuclear-weapon states to meet their disarmament obligations during the U.N. N.P.T. (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons). Review conference in New York from 27 April to 22 May 2026. In December 2025, Foreign Minister Penny Wong described the NPT as ‘the cornerstone of disarmament and non-proliferation’. It is time to demonstrate this.
Reinforcing, championing and demonstrating compliance with international humanitarian law and rights-based standards and norms.

Against the backdrop of embedded ADF personnel on U.S. subs sinking Iranian vessels in international waters, unexpected U.S. military uses of air force bases in WA, the executive deployment of forces and weaponry to the Gulf region, and the increasing Trump tractor beam towards unbridled and unlawful war-fighting, Australia and Australians must use this third anniversary as a time to review, reflect and recalibrate on what we stand for and against. And on whose terms and in whose interests.