The US has “led Australia into wars of aggression” for 50 years, internal party campaign group Labor Against War has argued, urging the government to chart a foreign policy independent “from the American war machine”. The Australian government has defended the growing presence of the US military on the Australian continent, insisting the defence sites “are Australian bases under Australian control”, despite evidence the US military controls more than a dozen bases on Australian territory. On Monday, the Guardian published data showing the US military, and US weapons manufacturers, control or have access to more than 100 bases across the Australian continent.
The Guardian has detailed 17 military facilities on Australian soil which are controlled by the United States military. The military has access to 75 more Australian-run bases, and US defence corporations access to 18 more. In total, the US military and American defence corporations have control of or access to 110 facilities on Australian territory, well over half of all the military installations in Australia.
That analysis has not been contradicted. The data was compiled by Dr Richard Tanter, senior research associate with the US-based Nautilus Institute. The publication of the database has exposed disquiet within the Labor party over growing US military presence across the continent.
Marcus Strom, the national convener of the grassroots Labor Against War group, said “the latticework of US bases and facilities across our continent should alarm anyone that values Australia’s independence from the American war machine”. In question time in the Senate, Greens senator David Shoebridge asked the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, why the government had chosen to “sign us up to the next US war”. Wong said the government would resolutely defend the US alliance, and that “everything the government is doing is working to deter and avert conflict”.
It enables us to have access to a range of capability that Australia would not have access to,” she said. Wong told the Senate the US military presence in the country is “at Australia’s invitation”. Pine Gap, the best known of the US-Australia “joint defence facilities” on Australian territory, was established by the CIA in the 1960s near Alice Springs.
US National Security Agency documents, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, show the “chief of facility” at Pine Gap is always an American, who reports directly the US National Reconnaissance Office. The deputy is a senior Australian Signals Directorate official. Former defence minister Christopher Pyne described Pine Gap in a public hearing as “more American than Australian”.
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