Written by: Nick G. on 23 April 2026
The recently released 2026 Australian National Defence Strategy continues the government’s blind acceptance of the US imperialist stranglehold on Australia at a time when that viewpoint is being increasingly rejected in favour of a more independent and peaceful foreign policy.
It is sometimes said that the erratic and bizarre behaviour of US President Donald Trump means that Australia can no longe rely on protection from its major strategic partner.
But the US-Australia “alliance” has never been about Australia’s protection, but about our being forced to accept the domination of our country by US imperialism.
Even so, the breadth and extent to which the relationship with the US is now being questioned is very welcome, and the Defence Strategy, which seeks to strengthen that relationship, may well be the last time that such an obsequious political and military “strategy” will be able to be foisted on the public.
It is not just that a stronger emerging Left is challenging the Albanese-Marles-Wong triumvirate. Led by Retired Admiral Chris Barrie, the former head of the Australian Defence Force, and Ian Dunlop, a former senior international oil and gas executive and ex-chair of the Australian Coal Association, the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group slammed the Strategy. In an op ed piece in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age, the pair said: “The fragility of fossil fuel supply lines and our reliance on them is now obvious, yet the newly released defence strategy downplays the strategic consequences of Australia’s fossil fuel dependence. The strategy fails to fully recognise how Australia’s expanding coal and gas exports are perpetuating a cycle of fossil fuel addiction, undermining our long-term security and claims to regional leadership.”
On the same day, in the Canberra Times, they said “The document is not a genuine strategy, but a short-term tactical response to current events that flinches from the strategic clarity required in a profoundly altered security environment.”
In fairness to the authors of the Strategy, the words “climate” and “climate change” are mentioned seven times, but with no commitment to any plan of action that would address the concerns raised by Barrie and Dunlop.
But they were not alone.
Kym Bergmann, editor of the online Asia Pacific Defence Reporter, attended the talk by Richard Marles, the Minister of Defence, at the National Press Club following the launch of the National Defence Strategy.
He described the presentation by Marles as “frankly appalling. Insulting, short-sighted and full of stupid mistakes, and most seriously of all, demonstrated an utter lack of recognition, let alone acceptance, that one of the major causes of global instability is the behaviour of the United States.”
In response to a journalist’s question about the continuing operation of the so-called international rules-based order, Marles said that you only have to fly low over the waters separating Indonesia from Australia to see its operation in the acceptance by Indonesian fishermen of the need to stay on their own side of the “border”. It was a response that left the audience gasping at Marle’s stupidity: Indonesian fishermen regularly move into Australian waters in search of rapidly depleting fish stocks.
As for referring to the kidnapping of one nation’s President by the armed forces of another, the sinking of boats and ships in international waters, the provision of arms for Zionism’s genocidal war against Palestinians, threats to take Greenland by force, and demands that Canada cease to exist except as a part of the United States, let alone the bombing of Iran and the threat to destroy it as a civilisation…no, Marles could see none of this.
Under his signature, the Defence Strategy declares, “The United States is our closest ally and principal strategic partner. Our Alliance contributes to the peace and stability of the region… Any effective balance of military power in the Indo-Pacific will require the continued presence and role of the United States… Australia’s force posture cooperation with the United States will continue to be a key pillar of our Alliance. It supports Australia’s ability to deter and respond, strengthens the credibility and resilience of the United States’ force posture in the region and supports collective deterrence efforts.”
Like a flagellant monk begging for more of the lash, Marles wants even greater subservience to his imperialist masters.
But across the nation, there is the growing rumble of stomachs being turned by such a sickening and servile display.
Those rumblings will become louder as the servility deepens.
There is little chance of a change in direction from the major parties. They try to outdo themselves in displays of Empire loyalty.
We are well-positioned to win more of our people to the demand for anti-imperialist independence and socialism.
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