On Hiroshima Day peace groups call for Govt to abandon AUKUS

“On Hiroshima Day, 6 August, we call on the Albanese Government to announce the cancellation of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal and steps to promote peace and co-operation within our region and globally,” Denis Doherty from the Hiroshima Day Committee said in Sydney today.

“These submarines will cost an eye watering $386 billion or $32 million every day for the next 30 years, adding 1.6 per cent to our GDP.

“This exorbitant cost inevitably means the government will have to raid other portfolios such as environment, health, housing and education. It is simply not acceptable that we suffer because of US ambitions to remain top dog in the region,” Doherty said.

“Many of our regional neighbours are deeply concerned by AUKUS, criticising it as destabilising and a threat to their security. They carry the scars of the nuclear age and want the Treaty of Rarotonga observed so that the Pacific is nuclear free.

“The submarines will produce high level nuclear waste which the government has agreed to store for around 200,000 years.  No country in the world has yet found a way to store high level radioactive waste so is the government going to simply dump it on Indigenous land?

“Australia is losing its ability to be a nuclear free country and to comply with the provisions of the non-proliferation treaty. And the Albanese Government still has not honoured its commitment to sign the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

“Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the almost quarter of a million men, women and children who perished there, give us a bitter history lesson on the nuclear age. Yet the AUKUS deal has opened up the prospect of more Hiroshima in our country, only this time both sides will have nuclear weapons,”. Denis Doherty concluded.

The 78^th anniversary of Hiroshima will be commemorated in many cities and towns around Australia on August 6

Details of the Sydney event are:

Sunday August 6 at 2 pm in Town Hall Square.

Speakers will be followed by a procession to the Defence Department at 320 Pitt St where wreaths for the victims of nuclear weapons and nuclear testing will be laid.

Media release for Friday 4th August 2023

Hiroshima/Nagasaki Day August 6th

The nuclear doomsday clock stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest the risk of nuclear holocaust has ever been. Yet Australia is planning to buy nuclear submarines and is handing over tracts of our north for the US military to use against China. 

78 years ago, two atomic bombs destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nearly a quarter of million were incinerated and countless people have died in the following years. 

“As Sydneysiders gather to commemorate the nuclear victims, we will also be demanding a nuclear free Australia,” said veteran peace activist Denis Doherty. 

“We do not want Alice Springs, Darwin and Katherine to become new Hiroshimas. 

“We do not want $32 million spent every day for 30 years on submarines when we need to deal with climate change, underpaid nurses and teachers and many more needs. 

“The US is building aggressive alliances including the QUAD and AUKUS and recent efforts to bring NATO into our region. But we need peace in our region,” he said. 

The survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the “hibakusha” — say from deep pain that “human life and nuclear weapons cannot exist together.” 

Hiroshima Day will be commemorated in many cities and towns around Australia on August 6.
Details of the Sydney event are: 

Sunday August 6 at 2 pm in Town Hall Square. 

Speakers will be followed by a procession to the Defence Department at 320 Pitt St where wreaths for the victims of nuclear weapons and nuclear testing will be laid.