Talk presented in Workshop 1: Unilateralism and sycophancy - Australian support for US global strategy, at the Now We The People conference, University of Technology, Sydney, 23.8.03

Dee Margetts MP

Thank you, and can just thank the organisers very much, because from a Western Australian point of view we kind of put ourselves on the agenda and the reason for that was that the activist groups in Western Australia were particularly keen that there be some presentation on some of the issues which illustrate a number of the kind of concerns that people have been talking about at this conference. And one very small plug: Nicole's here, but there are many wonderful young people working in the activist movement in WA, and they are our heart and soul. So good on the young people in WA, that's all I can say.

Now, in 1995 when I was still a Senator, we heard that there was a lot of interest from the US military being shown in the Lancelin defence training area, and at that time I asked questions to the then Minister for Defence, Robert Ray, who said "The US armed forces have expressed interest in using Lancelin range to conduct major exercises and have been briefed by a range of Australian defence personnel. Vice Admiral Clemins, the US 7th Fleet, was escorted by a Lancelin Range officer, who briefed him on the facilities after viewing the range from the air. Vice Admiral Clemins advised that he considered Lancelin Range not to be large enough to conduct any major exercises." Now this is despite the fact that Lancelin Range is a lot bigger than many of the training areas the US does currently use, or has used over time, but they want a range big enough to do a sort of major bombing strafe, if you like. That took them within I believe about two or three km of the Pinnacles, which is part of the region's utmost important tourism assets.

Funnily enough, the people there weren't impressed. So what then got on the agenda was a major increase in the defence training area. From 26,000 hectares, they wanted an extra 35,000. This is the bit that then took it within several km of the Pinnacles, and of course we all know how straight the US shoots. This is part of the region I represent, and it amazed me that as soon as the information started coming out, the community wrote almost as one, and said "don't even think about it."

And amazingly, the politicians changed, so with people counting Lancelin, and Bidjaloon, Garrangarra [sp?] people meeting in cold halls, August 2002, Fran Bailey as the junior defence minister announced that Defence had shelved the proposal for the time being in consideration of the concerns raised by property holders and community groups. So they'd taken it off the agenda, at least for now.

However, in this process, we discovered, a journalist from the West Australian contacted me and advised me that the Parliamentary Secretary for the Premier of Western Australia had been to the United States on a sales mission, and what he'd been selling was the prospect of the US using Perth or Fremantle as a Seaswap operation, that is, to bring their navy vessels in instead of going back to the US, to actually fly in their navy personnel, and swap over. So that's seven days with each of them, two weeks at a time, and then use WA for the purpose that US Navy personnel usually do, which is getting drunk and getting laid.

But, the sales pitch to the US military was "come to WA, you can use Lancelin as a defence training area." And of course, then we have the documents that naively went off to the US, and apparently the Admiralty are very impressed because there's very few places they can go these days. So McGowan says "the US Navy regards the shore bombardment range built at Lancelin as being of greater importance to their operations. Security is very important and the site should be properly fenced."

Vice-Admiral Clemins says "One of the greatest things we lost in the Philippines were bombing ranges to train. You have to have places to drop bombs, you have to have places to shoot live weapons. Places to fly planes over that make noise, places you can actually test and exercise your capacity. I think Australia in the future is going to be one of the places we'd like to exercise with the Australians, as well as with the US Navy. You now have some of the finest ranges in the Western Pacific which we cannot get anywhere else."

Can I just point out there are many people in WA who don't want to be the major source of the United States' being laid and getting drunk, who don't want our coastal communities to be the bombing range with all the contaminants associated even with ordinary weaponry. Let alone, let alone the potential to use the range of weaponry on board most US Navy ships, which have depleted uranium shells.

The Lancelin defence training area is a very important groundwater area. Funnily enough, the detailed groundwater maps around Lancelin aren't as detailed as many other places, but the water table is very close to the surface, there's quite a lot of wetlands, and it is an important water source in general, for the region - of growing importance for irrigated agriculture, but also a fallback for the Perth metropolitan water supply.
That's not just "not in my backyard" stuff; that's just giving you an idea of the area that's just giving you an idea of the area that's going to be massively extra-bombarded. The people are out of their heads in terms of concern, but I'm very pleased to say that SBS - for those people who saw Insight on Thursday - the media are beginning to pick this up.

So I'd just like to point you to some information, propaganda that is available. Fremantle anti-nuclear group have produced a very well-written document. I brought as many as I could fit into my bag, among other leaflets. We've got some about depleted uranium and Lancelin, and if anyone needs more of these there's an email address on the back for the Fremantle anti-nuclear group, and I believe they'd be extremely happy, if any groups needs this information, to provide them.

That's the main message I'd like to put today, that for us it's not just a theoretical exercise - I'm not saying it is for anyone here - but I also have in my electorate Geraldton, but for our seats this is a real threat that's happening right now. And I've stood up there while these jets were screaming around, and I believe they come much, much lower than they are allowed to by law, and as we know that military pilots in the US do, and are encouraged to, take drugs while on operations, especially the high-speed operations. So funnily enough a lot of people are not impressed by that, and anything you could do to link in that with your information seeking and campaigns, would be very much appreciated.

Dee Margetts MLC is a Greens member of the Western Australian Legislative Council

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