Australia’s biggest war games overlooks environment (again)
This week I was finally made aware of the coming and going of the Australian Defence Force’s Public Environment Report for the Talisman-Saber 09 war games.
In July 2009 about 30,000 US and Australian troops will participate in war games that will take place primarily in the Shoalwater Bay region in Queensland and at Delamere and Bradshaw bases in the NT. It’s arguably the biggest military activity in Australia and most of it conducted in sensitive environmental areas including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
So how come no environment groups had anything to say?
There are over 50 environment, peace and church groups opposed to the war games under the Peace Convergence banner. We achieved national attention in 2007 and 2005 when we thwarted the war games by blockading roads and entering the SWB base. So was it deception or mere incompetence that allowed the submission process to go ahead without even one of these groups or the hundreds of unaffiliated individuals knowing? Why weren’t the local indigenous people of the Shoalwater region consulted? Why wasn’t Friends of the Earth, long time critics of military pollution and injustice, made aware?
What exactly is the role of Sinclair Knight Merz, employed by the ADF to write the PER? In what sense is this a public consultation if key stakeholders don’t know about it?
Well I finally got the read the said Public Environment Report and it’s [here] if you’re interested. Unsurprisingly, almost all the issues that I brought up in previous years, as environment spokesperson for the Peace Convergence, were not addressed. Indeed, Friends of Earth questions the viability and effectiveness of the Australian Defence Force’s process. This is NOT an Environmental Impact Assessment in the legal sense required by Federal environmental laws. It has no legally enforceable outcomes and indeed the TS09 games are exempt from the usual assessment process under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999). In that case is it anything more than greenwashing?
Of primary concern environmentally speaking is the risk the flora, fauna and habitat posed by these war games. Military games present too many and varied risks to both habitat and the animals that depend on it. The numerous risks include: the potential for accidents involving toxic chemicals used in munitions or flares, the purposeful release of such materials during live firing and in blanks, and the risk of unexploded ordnance; the physical presence of troops, massive vehicles on land and sea; nuclear vessels probably carrying nuclear weapons; the use of active sonar known to kill, maim and beach cetaceans and whales. Not to mention the abysmal track record of the US Department of Defence, who single-handedly create more pollution that any other industrial activity.
Why on earth are we letting these things go ahead in our protected areas? We have a lot to lose environmentally: unique Ramsar listed wetlands, migratory birds protected by two international treaties, dugong, whales, green sea turtles, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, pristine habitats stretching for 300km of coastline in Shoalwater Bay. During these war games tanks will flatten dunes and vegetation, nuclear subs will pollute the oceans with sound and turbulence, toxic munitions will be spread, possibly stirring up the many unexploded ordnance from bygone days that already litter our countryside with their toxic loads.
Why are we allowing the USDoD to do on Australian territory what their own citizens have prohibited at home? Are we mad?
The region falls within the traditional lands of the Darumbal people. Despite being the recognized as the traditional owners and Native Title Claimants, the Darumbal have not been given Native Title to their land nor do they have equity in the decision-making process about military activity. They are allowed only occasional and temporary access to Shoalwater Bay, and not fairly represented or consulted on its use. We believe that access to traditional land and enabling of practicing of traditional culture is a human right being denied the Darumbal people. Their land should be returned to them to be protected and honoured for the future.
Looking at the big political picture, the TS09 games are more ’saber rattling’ that can only disquiet our Asian neighbours, and Rudd should abandon such war games with the US as relics of the Howard government’s imperialist agenda, ensconced as it was in a regime of ‘preemptive’ strike.
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