Labor members are set to join unionists at a rally in Wollongong’s Port Kembla on Saturday to urge the Albanese government to rule out the location as a future base for the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines.
Rally organisers say the debate is “a proxy battle” for Australia’s future and warn the delay in making a decision will only deter renewable energy investment in Port Kembla.
The former Morrison government named it as well as Newcastle and Brisbane as three potential sites for a new east coast base, with reports earlier this year suggesting Port Kembla was favoured by defence planners.
But in the wake of the defence strategic review, the Labor government has delayed a decision on the location and has signalled it will not limit itself to the Morrison government-era shortlist. It also now talks about a “facility”, not necessarily a base.
A spokesperson for the defence minister, Richard Marles, said the government would “develop a process to consider all feasible options for an east coast facility to support Australia’s future submarine capability”.
A decision would be made “late in this decade”, the spokesperson said.
The government believes it can take the time to weigh up the decision, with the more immediate priority being infrastructure works at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, which will host rotational visits by US and UK submarines from 2027.
But the rethink has failed to ease concerns of opponents of a new base in Port Kembla. Those opponents say they expect more than 1,000 people to march on Saturday.
The South Coast Labour Council’s annual May Day march has been moved from Wollongong to Port Kembla to shine a spotlight on opposition to the proposed base.
Arthur Rorris, the secretary of the South Coast Labour Council and a member of the Labor party, said the rally was attended last year by more than 750 people, but it would be “bigger this year than normal”.
“That is a reflection of the concern in the community about the proposed east coast nuclear submarine base.”
He expected “a very strong showing of Labor party membership”.
Rorris said locals had “grave fears” that the prospect of a submarine base would crowd out potential energy investors.
“That is why we are asking the federal government: rule it out, take it off the table and say that it will never be a nuclear base. Until that happens, economically and industrially, we have a major and unacceptable problem.”
Rorris said the traditional coalmining and steelmaking region had been seen as “carbon central”, but a lot of work had been done to keep people together on the journey to a renewable energy future.
“Many people are very, very pissed off, to be honest with you. We’re at the point where we’re able to get the fruits of all that work, now they want to turn this place into ground zero.”
Rorris said it was a “choice between the industries of the future to save the planet versus the war machines that may well destroy it”.
“We understand that unlike the Morrison government, this Albanese federal government is a bit more attuned to the feeling on this matter on the ground,” Rorris said.
“I think they understand the alarm and I suspect that what is happening is that the defence department, which has a habit of getting its way on these things, hasn’t been able to convince the government as yet – as yet – to make a call on it.
“We make no apologies for putting as much pressure as possible on the decision makers to rule out Port Kembla now, not later.”
Some Labor party members plan to march as part of a newly formed anti-Aukus network, named Labor Against War.
Marcus Strom, a spokesperson for Labor Against War and a former Albanese government press secretary, said the party had “a proud tradition of opposing the nuclear industry and wars of aggression”.
“We are very worried about the direction the government is taking with Aukus, a Scott Morrison thought bubble agreed to by federal caucus without any debate in the party,” he said.
“Australians do not want to be dragged into another US-led war.”
To date the federal Labor caucus is largely united behind the Aukus agreement, even though some MPs have asked questions.
But rank-and-file members who hold concerns are understood to have been emboldened to become more active after several prominent Labor figures including the former prime minister Paul Keating spoke out against Aukus.
The Greens’ defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, who will address Saturday’s rally, said it was a “dishonest approach from the government to agree to an east cost submarine base and then refuse to tell anyone where it will be”.
“There is no doubt that the civil revolt in the Illawarra has forced the government to, at least temporarily, step back from naming Port Kembla as the east coast nuclear submarine base,” he said.
“The Albanese government knows the optics is dreadful of taking on an array of unions and an engaged local community who prize and protect the extraordinary anti-war history of the Illawarra, so they are putting the decision off as long as they can.”
Shoebridge said the “inevitable exclusion zones” around a submarine base would “monopolise the port and strangle the exciting plans to make it a renewable energy services and export hub”.
