Pacific leader Maureen Penjueli addresses the AUKUS Inquiry Hearing in Canberra
IPAN contributed to the AUKUS public Inquiry over the past 6 months- the report by Commissioners will be released at the National Press Club on Wednesday November 4th at 1230 AEDT
Maureen Penjueli, from DAWN, the Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, travelled from Fiji to address the AUKUS Public Inquiry's Canberra hearing on Day 2, on behalf of Pacific civil society organisations unable to attend in person. This was a substantial contribution to the debate on AUKUS and its impacts on regional peace.
https://youtu.be/e2UfPetLpRQ?si=YfxVXsEcoNs3E7B
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Penjueli revealed Australia has signed seven major new defence treaties with Pacific nations since AUKUS was announced, arguing they function as "militarised aid" that subverts the foreign policy independence of small Pacific states: "These defence treaties are asymmetrical. They control defence and deny any third-party military presence, subverting the foreign policy of our countries."
She detailed the planned deployment of up to 25 allied nuclear submarines across Hawaii, Guam and Perth by 2039, and warned the region risks becoming "the next theatre of war," pointing to a Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile test that landed in the South Pacific nuclear-free zone within hours of Australia signing a new defence treaty with Fiji.
Penjueli also raised serious concerns about the rights of indigenous Pacific communities already affected by decades of US militarisation in places like Guam, where "medicine women are limited in accessing traditional harvesting grounds" due to military occupation of the island. "The Pacific has already paid the price of being treated as a testing ground, a military frontier and a ground for other nations' ambitions.
Our ocean is not a theatre for great power rivalry. It is our home... If the Blue Pacific is to become a genuine ocean of peace, militarisation must give way to cooperation."
This hearing is a public record. All views, for and against, are presented as evidence for the Inquiry to weigh. It is not too late to have your say, late submissions accepted here: aukuspublicinquiry.com