It was a year ago this week that Scott Morrison appeared alongside Boris Johnson and Joe Biden to unveil the AUKUS security pact which would bind Australia, the UK and the US for decades. After years of work in the background, Morrison’s secret weapon was finally ready.

Game-changing doesn’t quite capture it.

AUKUS is the largest commitment to defence spending Australia has ever made — about $170 billion, according to the latest estimate from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. At a single stroke Morrison boxed Australia into a “forever” pact with the Anglosphere powers, blindsided France, and ambushed the Labor opposition.

Until that moment Australia had only one nuclear reactor, at Lucas Heights in Sydney. Suddenly it was signing up for eight more in the form of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. For this there was no consultation. No white papers. No parliamentary debate. 

Read the full article attached and please keep sharing the petition. You are all doing this well- now up to almost 127 thousand signatures.

The Australian Anti-Aukus coalition will publish a statement signed by hundreds of people and organisations in The Saturday Paper this weekend.