An anti-nuclear submarine forum organised by the No AUKUS Coalition Vic was held on June 23 drew up to 200 people on World Whistleblower Day.
Speakers included Peter Garrett, former federal minister for the environment and lead singer of Midnight Oil; Dr Margaret Beavis, co-chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in Australia; Victorian Australian Metal Workers Union Secretary Tony Mavromatis and Arthur Rorris, Secretary of the South Coast Labour Council and part of the community campaign against a nuclear submarine base at Port Kembla in New South Wales.
Rorris described Port Kembla’s resistance to the base, saying the proposal was not put to the community. He said Wollongong had a plan to transition to renewable energy, which the nuclear submarine base plan would wreck.
Garrett said he opposed AUKUS nuclear submarines, but added that Australia needed a stronger defence industry. This drew some criticism from the meeting.
National protests against AUKUS have been planned for Hiroshima Day on August 6.