Following the announcement by South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley that the Asia Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition has been cancelled, peace activists who had been planning anti-APDSE protests had reason to celebrate.
Slandered by Foley as "feral low-life" and accused of planning "violent" protests against the multi-million dollar killing technology exhibition, the activists are in fact delighted that APDSE is not going ahead. At meetings of the Stop the War Fair Committee, however, they resolved to proceed with both a peace festival and a protest action outside Defence SA.
One aspect of the plans to voice opposition to the arms trade won't be going ahead, however. A billboard with the slogan "Hands Up for Peace. No Arms for War" had been commissioned with funds from many groups and individuals in the peace movement. A contract was signed to hire the billboard close to the Adelaide Convention Centre where the APDSE was to have been held.
Following the cancellation of the APDSE, activists decided that the message was still relevant and assumed that the contract would stand. However, the media company involved reneged on the contract, with a company employee saying the billboard was "too political".
Activists are pushing ahead with other plans. A number of popular local musicians will perform at the Peace and Remembrance Festival on November 9, including Poetikool Justice, the Fiddle Chicks and the Borderers.
Jock Staten, the state president of the Returned and Services League, will address the crowd. The RSL had criticised the timing of APDSE, which was originally scheduled to begin on Remembrance Day. Stop the War Fair Committee and other community groups will also address the crowd.
On November 11, Jacob Grech from Oz Peace will address a community speak-out against war outside the offices of Defence SA. The Labor state government established Defence SA at the end of 2007 to "offer focussed and responsive service to Defence and defence industry, to drive the sector's growth in South Australia and to support the delivery of key defence projects and facilities".
No other state or territory has a stand-alone defence agency.
The state government recently announced that it would spend $400 million on the new Techport development and $650 million in infrastructure to relocate the newly formed "mechanised battalion group" of 1200 soldiers from the Northern Territory to SA.
South Australia is also host to Australia's largest ever "defence" contract, the Air Warfare Destroyer project, worth about $8 billion.