Grassroots Labor group urges Albanese government to chart course away from ‘American war machine’
Pressure follows revelations US military and weapons manufacturers control or have access to more than 100 bases across the Australian continent
The US has “led Australia into wars of aggression” for 50 years, internal party campaign group Labor Against War has argued, urging the government to chart a foreign policy independent “from the American war machine”.
The Australian government has defended the growing presence of the US military on the Australian continent, insisting the defence sites “are Australian bases under Australian control”, despite evidence the US military controls more than a dozen bases on Australian territory.
On Monday, The Guardian published data showing the US military, and US weapons manufacturers, control or have access to more than 100 bases across the Australian continent.
The Guardian has detailed 17 military facilities on Australian soil that are controlled by the United States military. The military has access to 75 more Australian-run bases, and US defence corporations have access to 18 more.
In total, the US military and American defence corporations have control of or access to 110 facilities on Australian territory, well over half of all the military installations in Australia. That analysis has not been contradicted. The data was compiled by Dr Richard Tanter, senior research associate with the US-based Nautilus Institute.
The publication of the database has exposed disquiet within the Labor Party over growing US military presence across the continent.
Marcus Strom, the national convener of the grassroots Labor Against War group, said: “The latticework of US bases and facilities across our continent should alarm anyone that values Australia’s independence from the American war machine”.
“For more than 50 years the US has led Australia into wars of aggression,” Strom said.
“Labor Against War calls on the Albanese government to chart a new course for Australia’s foreign and defence policy that is suited to the future, not clinging to the fading guarantees of the past.”
Strom said the government should abandon the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement as a first step.
In question time in the Senate, Greens senator David Shoebridge asked the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, why the government had chosen to “sign us up to the next US war”.
Wong said the government would resolutely defend the US alliance and that “everything the government is doing is working to deter and avert conflict”.
“We are of the view that the US alliance contributes to Australian sovereignty. It enables us to have access to a range of capabilities that Australia would not have access to,” she said.
Wong told the Senate the US military presence in the country is “at Australia’s invitation”.
“These are Australian bases under Australian command.”
Reference Link;- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/08/grassroots-labor-pressure-group-albanese-government-us-military-war-machine
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
