In Australia, anti-Aukus protesters hit out at ‘belligerent nuclear plans’

Following backlash from unions and environmental groups, the government has said it had not decided on Port Kembla, a bastion of the ruling centre-left Labor government that media had reported to be the favoured location for the base.

“We don’t want to be part of someone else’s belligerent nuclear plans,” said Arthur Rorris, head of the South Coast Labor Council, consisting of unions representing 50,000 workers in the area.

They fear the base could choke an infant clean-energy sector by taking up scarce land and ushering in security curbs, as well as the permanent presence of US warships.

Rorris urged the government to abandon plans for the base while speaking at a protest on Monday outside parliament house, the latest demonstration in a series, some of which drew as many as 5,000 protesters.

Former prime minister Paul Keating, an influential figure in the Labor party has called Aukus its worst foreign policy mistake since a failed bid to introduce conscription during the first world war.

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But a decision on the base is not needed right away, said Pat Conroy, the minister for defence industry.

“The east coast base is something that will be necessary a lot further down the track,” he said in an interview.

Until then, the government was focused on upgrading Australia’s sole submarine base on the west coast and preparing shipyards to build the Aukus fleet, starting from the early 2040s, Conroy added.

However Labor is unlikely to revive the base issue ahead of the election, for fear it could alienate voters and spur a third-party challenge in the constituency, said public policy expert Mark Kenny of the Australian National University.

“That