/qresearch/ -  Q Research

>>25232677

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There is also a geopolitical reality that official rhetoric routinely seeks to obscure. When preserving a "free and open Indo-Pacific" is discussed, China is clearly central to the strategic logic sustaining AUKUS. Australia is not simply acquiring submarines or advanced military technologies. It is injecting an increasingly explicit military dimension into China-Australia relations and undermining the considerable efforts made in recent years to stabilize the bilateral relationship. The more closely Canberra is incorporated into US operational planning, the more vulnerable its relationship with Beijing becomes to strategic decisions made elsewhere and to confrontations that Australia may neither initiate nor be able to control.

The regional consequences are equally serious. AUKUS brings nuclear-powered submarines, long-range strike capabilities and increasingly integrated military planning into an Asia-Pacific already burdened by intensifying strategic rivalry, encouraging further military alignment, forward deployment and the competitive accumulation of advanced weapons systems. Far from insulating Australia from danger, this trajectory risks drawing the country closer to the very confrontation it claims to deter. Australia enjoys considerable geographical depth and has no compelling national interest in turning itself into a forward military platform in a confrontation between its principal security ally and its most important economic partner. Yet, as American forces, intelligence systems, logistics networks and submarine operations become more deeply embedded in Australia, the practical capacity of any future government to remain outside a conflict involving the US will inevitably diminish.

Therefore, five years after the establishment of AUKUS, Five years on, AUKUS should therefore be judged not by the grandeur of its political announcements but by the strategic position into which it is drawing Australia. The country is spending more, waiting longer and binding its defense establishment ever more closely to another power's military system while assuming greater risks in its relations with China and across the wider Asia-Pacific. The most serious danger is not merely that the submarines may arrive late or cost far more than expected, but that by the time they eventually enter service, Australia may have already relinquished much of the strategic independence they were supposedly intended to protect. If AUKUS continues along its present course, Canberra may ultimately discover that the price of becoming more useful to Washington has been to make Australia progressively less able to decide for itself when, where and for what purpose its military power should be used.

The author is director of the Asia Pacific Studies Centre at East China Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202610/1371856.shtml

>>25233673

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Labor agreed to support the deal for Australia to acquire nuclear submarines, which was negotiated under Morrison, then US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Boris Johnson. As part of the agreement, Australia is funding upgrades to the US defence industrial base and is due to start receiving secondhand Virginia class nuclear submarines around 2032.

But delays and cost blowouts for production of submarines for the US navy have led to scepticism that Australia will receive the in-service boats.

The UK parliament held a year-long review and, after an inquiry by the Pentagon in 2025, Donald Trump agreed to support Aukus.

But former prime ministers Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, former foreign affairs ministers Gareth Evans and Bob Carr, environmental and security campaigners, and some within Labor believe Aukus is not in Australia’s national interest.

Frustrated by the lack of scrutiny – in part due to bipartisan support for Aukus in federal parliament – unions, not-for-profits and former officeholders launched their own inquiry backed by public donations totalling $220,000.

Labor argues Aukus was considered as part of the government’s defence strategic review.

Government ministers have dismissed the public inquiry as a stitch-up by critics of the agreement. A spokesperson for the defence minister, Richard Marles, said on Wednesday that Aukus is a core pillar of the Albanese government’s national security policy.

“As the national defence strategy 2026 re-confirms, we confront the most challenging strategic circumstances since the second world war, and we do so at a time where Australia’s economic connection with the world has never been greater,” they said.

“We need to support the development of an ADF with a much greater capacity to project so we can defend Australia and contribute to regional security and stability.”

(continued)

>>25233675

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Garrett warned any certainty the US president would eventually agree to send submarines to Australia could not be guaranteed.

“There are no refunds, no enforceable obligations on partner countries, and no recourse if things go wrong,” he said.

The inquiry estimates an additional $180bn will be needed to deal with nuclear waste generated by Aukus, based on evidence to the inquiry. No official cost estimates for waste have been published.

Australia has not identified a permanent storage site for the waste, including the high-level radioactive waste from the reactor core and spent fuel, which will remain toxic for thousands of years.

The government’s preferred measure of the total cost of the deal is 0.15% of GDP over its lifetime.

The first Virginia-class nuclear sub from the US is due to arrive in Australia in 2032, with another arriving every four years, before the Australian-built model is ready for operations. The bespoke SSN Aukus model is due to come online in 2042.

Campaign group Labor Against War welcomed the report.

“With rising cost of living and unemployment, spiralling inflation and interest rates, it is beyond comprehension why the Australian government is throwing billions into the war chests of the US military at a time when the Australian people are crying out for solutions at home,” the group’s patron and a former senator, Doug Cameron, said.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/nov/04/aukus-worst-australian-defence-decision-ever-public-inquiry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zSLKY-WOqQ

https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/

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>>25182196

>>25233673

AUKUS submarine pact: Independent inquiry calls for immediate termination and royal commission

Rob Harris - November 4, 2026

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Australia must rethink its relationship with China rather than blindly follow the United States into a disastrous military confrontation, former defence force chief Chris Barrie has warned as part of a review demanding the federal government overhaul its signature security strategy.

The retired admiral delivered the warning at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday as he joined former Labor minister Peter Garrett to launch a scathing report calling for the immediate cancellation of the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear submarine pact, arguing it threatens Australian sovereignty and risks dragging the nation into a war with China.

The inquiry calls for the nuclear submarine program to be scrapped, a royal commission into AUKUS, the suspension of US submarine operations near Perth and a fundamental overhaul of Australia’s defence strategy and relationships with Washington and Beijing.

“Whatever way you want to look at the future in this region, by 2050, China will be the world’s largest power, the world’s greatest power,” Barrie said. “I don’t see any evidence of global aspirations and global dominance aspirations that we’ve seen out of the United States. And that’s why I worry about the contest between the United States and China.”

Barrie, who led the Australian Defence Force from 1998 to 2002, said Australia needed to better its relationship with Beijing and invest far more heavily in diplomacy rather than allowing its strategic priorities to be dictated by Washington.

Barrie, who recalled travelling through China with the head of the People’s Liberation Army during his time as defence chief, said Australia needed a more sophisticated understanding of Beijing’s strategic ambitions.

The retired admiral said Australia’s tendency to lecture Beijing publicly had damaged relations, and warned against viewing China’s rise solely through the prism of American strategic competition.

“I think we need to recalibrate the way we deal with China,” he said, suggesting Australia’s embassy in Beijing should become its second-largest diplomatic mission, if not the largest.

His intervention came as a union and community-backed public inquiry accused successive Coalition and Labor governments of committing generations of taxpayers to an extraordinarily expensive defence program without adequately examining its costs, feasibility or consequences for Australia’s independence.

The report, Surrendering Australia: The AUKUS Deception, concluded the submarine acquisition program was unlikely to deliver on its promises and could leave the Australian Navy without an effective submarine fleet. It labelled the program the “worst, riskiest and most costly” defence decision made by an Australian government.

The inquiry’s findings challenge the bipartisan consensus behind AUKUS, which the Albanese government maintains is essential to Australia’s long-term defence capability and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.

Garrett, the Midnight Oil frontman, lashed the absence of meaningful debate within his own party over AUKUS, saying the evidence presented to commissioners had reinforced his original concerns about the deal.

“My major objection to AUKUS in the first instance was that there was no debate,” Garrett said.

“Where was the vigorous debate in the caucus? Where was the vigorous debate in the cabinet? We don’t have any sense that there’s been a debate.”

Garrett said the enormous cost, the failure to account for the safe storage of radioactive waste and the terms of the agreement had convinced him the program was fundamentally flawed.

“Your conclusion after looking at it and hearing from expert advice is that it is a complete absolute crock.”

(continued)

>>25236029

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The report, which backs longstanding criticisms from former prime ministers Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, calls for a comprehensive national security strategy and accuses both major parties of surrendering critical defence decisions to foreign powers.

Among the 17 recommendations, the inquiry recommended urgently developing a cheaper alternative to replace the ageing Collins-class fleet, while reviewing the separate AUKUS agreement on advanced defence technologies. It also calls for an Australian National Audit Office investigation into its costs.

Work on the AUKUS submarine construction facilities at Adelaide’s Osborne naval precinct should halt, while Australian submariners should stop being seconded to American vessels, the report argues.

The report also warns that the US and Britain could walk away from the agreement without delivering the promised submarines while retaining billions of dollars for their shipbuilding industries.

It also questions whether the delivery timetable is achievable and warns that attempting to operate three different classes of submarines could place intolerable pressure on Defence personnel and resources. Australia is scheduled to receive its first US-built Virginia-class nuclear submarine in 2032, with a subsequent boat arriving every four years until the sovereign fleet is operational. The first Australian-built SSN-AUKUS vessel is slated to enter service in 2042.

The public inquiry, convened by the Australian Peace and Security Forum, received more than 1000 written submissions and heard evidence over 10 days across eight cities, with its organisers raising $220,000 to fund the exercise.

A government spokesperson brushed off the inquiry, noting AUKUS had already faced extensive parliamentary scrutiny and remained vital in tackling the nation’s toughest strategic challenges since World War II.

Defending the project’s multi-billion-dollar cost, the spokesperson said the partnership was designed to bolster the Australian Defence Force’s strike power.

“We need to support the development of an ADF with a much greater capacity to project so we can defend Australia and contribute to regional security and stability,” they said.

The government also said the pact would create roughly 20,000 direct jobs across industry, defence, and the public sector over the next three decades.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/too-risky-too-costly-aukus-should-be-scrapped-finds-peter-garrett-led-inquiry-20261104-p61bbt.html

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>>25182196

>>25233673

>>25236029

Coalition slams ‘sham inquiry’ seeking to ‘terminate’ AUKUS

JOSEPH OLBRYCHT-PALMER - November 05, 2026

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson has branded an unofficial probe into AUKUS a “sham inquiry”, accusing the group of academics and former officials behind it of having a “predetermined view” of the $368bn submarine pact.

AUKUS is the centrepiece of Australia’s 21st century defence strategy, aiming to arm the navy with eight nuclear-powered submarines fully interoperable with the UK and US navies.

A second pillar focuses on sharing cutting edge military technologies, including artificial intelligence-powered weapon systems.

Citing a lack of transparency, the AUKUS Public Inquiry launched in June with the core question: “Would AUKUS keep Australians safe, and at what cost?”

It would not, according to the inquiry’s freshly published final report.

But Senator Paterson said on Thursday the report’s authors – which include musician and former Labor minister Peter Garrett – went into the inquiry knowing what they would find.

“This is a group that had a predetermined view about AUKUS from the very beginning,” he told News24.

“They conducted a sham inquiry as a way of manufacturing a faux report, but you could have asked these people six months ago what their view was on AUKUS, and they would have told you exactly what they’ve said in the report.”

Pointing to their unveiling of the report at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Senator Paterson said “they shredded their own credibility by saying that the People’s Republic of China doesn’t have ambitions to dominate our region and doesn’t pose a national security challenge to Australia”.

“There is no serious, informed national security expert who thinks that that is true,” he said.

“And by revealing their naivety on that issue, I think we can dismiss the rest of the findings.”

The inquiry’s commissioners are made up of seasoned academics, including former defence chief and retired admiral Chris Barrie.

But most have an association with peace movements and a history of open scepticism for the US alliance, with one also a prominent antinuclear advocate.

They found AUKUS increased the “risk of war with China” by making “Australia a nuclear target” and accelerating “a regional arms race”.

They also found it eroded Australia’s sovereignty by rotating American and British nuclear-submarines through Western Australia, would likely cost hundreds of billions more than expected and invited conflicts of interest.

They made 16 recommendations, with the first one being to “terminate AUKUS”.

AUKUS is intended to deter Chinese aggression.

Beijing has ramped up war games around Taiwan in recent years, while clashes with Philippines naval vessels have become a daily occurrence.

Last year, a flotilla of Chinese warships circumnavigated Australia and carried out live fire drills off the East Coast.

Pressed on the drills last year, Defence Minister Richard Marles would not confirm whether they targeted Australian cities.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/coalition-slams-sham-inquiry-seeking-to-terminate-aukus/news-story/a0713c4da75e4d21ff74ae7c39ff7a1c

>>24920160 (pb)

>>25035706

>>25182196

>>25233673

>>25236029

Opinion: Australia needs serious discussion on AUKUS. This inquiry didn’t deliver it

Jennifer Parker - November 5, 2026

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In March 2023, Midnight Oil frontman and former Labor minister Peter Garrett wrote in an article titled “AUKUS stinks, and that’s an understatement”:

Scott Morrison’s decision to build nuclear submarines in partnership with northern hemisphere former imperial powers was the most costly and risky action ever taken by any Australian government and should not have been allowed to stand.

It’s little wonder, then, that a Garrett-led community inquiry has this week delivered a report recommending Australia scrap its nuclear-powered submarine program immediately.

AUKUS carries significant risk. The question is whether those risks are being adequately mitigated.

The report offers little in the way of mitigation beyond recommending Australia cancel its submarine program yet again, at a time when state-on-state conflict is at levels not seen since the second world war.

Australia’s strategic circumstances and our responses warrant close scrutiny. There remains a disconnect between how national security professionals understand our strategic circumstances and the public’s understanding of this.

The government needs to do more to communicate how the world is changing and what this means for Australia’s security. It must better explain our dependence on maritime trade and why AUKUS is part of the response.

Unfortunately, this inquiry fails to do that. Instead, it takes an alarmist approach, demonstrates a limited understanding of maritime strategy, naval capability and defence acquisition, and at times risks spreading misinformation by presenting speculation as fact.

What is this inquiry? And what did it recommend?

This inquiry was called by members of the community concerned about AUKUS. Of its five commissioners, four had previously criticised AUKUS, including the former defence force chief, Admiral Chris Barrie. The fifth is co-CEO of the Australia Institute, which has publicly campaigned against it.

So even at the time it was called, questions were being asked about how independent the inquiry could actually be. As journalist David Speers asked Garrett in June:

Do you really need an inquiry when you’ve already made up your mind?

To its credit, it invited differing views from former Defence Ministers Kim Beazley, Christopher Pyne and Linda Reynolds, and former Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo. Yet each is quoted only once in the 113-page report, despite the significance of their experience and differing views.

I declined to participate, as did several other colleagues across the defence community, concerned that this public inquiry may have a predetermined view. Instead, my Lowy colleague Sam Roggeveen and I publicly debated our almost diametrically opposed positions on AUKUS.

This inquiry held ten days of hearings across Australia and received more than 1,000 submissions. It delivered 17 recommendations – 16 aimed at the government and parliament and one aimed at the broader community. The report notes the government will likely ignore its recommendations.

Of its recommendations, some are hard to disagree with, such as developing a national security strategy.

Others seem tangential to AUKUS, including releasing the 2022 intelligence assessment on climate-related national security risks.

Other claims are concerning. The report states that the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) “could be forced to act primarily on the orders and in the interests of the US”, without establishing how Australia would lose sovereign control of its submarines.

It also asserts that future US Virginia-class submarines “will be nuclear-armed”. It’s true the US is developing a nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile, potentially reviving a Cold War-era capability. But its deployment is far from certain.

These risks merit examination, not presentation as certainties.

(continued)

>>25236043

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In June this year, a Lowy Institute poll found 68% of Australians supported acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. Cancellation is therefore unlikely in the near term.

Yet the inquiry recommends disbanding the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Regulator and AFP (Australian Federal Police) AUKUS Command and ending RAN submariner secondments to US submarines.

These recommendations assume AUKUS will be cancelled, with little consideration of how the commissioners’ concerns would be addressed if it continues.

If the risks are as grave as the commissioners suggest, wouldn’t they want them mitigated, even if they don’t get their preferred outcome?

The report acknowledges nuclear-powered submarines “can travel further and faster, stay underwater longer”. Yet it describes them as primarily offensive platforms unsuited to defending Australia’s maritime approaches.

A platform is neither inherently offensive nor defensive. This depends on how it is employed, not its propulsion system.

As I have previously argued, most conventional submarines lack the endurance required to operate across Australia’s vast maritime domain and sea lines of communication.

No viable replacement

Perhaps the report’s most glaring omission is that it offers no viable replacement to AUKUS. It recommends Australia “consider and determine a Plan B for Pillar I”. (Pillar I is Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.) Yet the report also states:

It is beyond the scope of the inquiry to comment on which alternatives should be pursued.

The report insists Australia needs 12 submarines, regardless of type. That figure, first adopted in the 2009 Defence White Paper for a conventional fleet, cannot simply be carried over without considering capabilities, endurance, intended missions and fiscal constraints.

Despite Garrett’s previous assertions Australia can buy submarines “off the shelf”, this is simply not true.

At the end of the day, AUKUS remains on track, though of course there are significant risks. But the risk of cancelling AUKUS now is that Australia will be left without a submarine capability in the 2030s. AUKUS is not Plan A. It comes after several other plans and projects were abandoned or changed.

Cancel another submarine program, particularly one with our closest ally, and it is difficult to see who would be willing to partner with Australia again.

Jennifer Parker is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia Defence and Security Institute. She served for more than 20 years as a warfare officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-serious-discussion-on-aukus-this-inquiry-didnt-deliver-it-295876

https://petergarrett.com.au/aukus-stinks-and-thats-an-understatement/

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>>25182196

>>25233673

>>25236029

>>25236043

China's blunt message over Australia's $368 billion AUKUS defence deal: 'Make the right choice'

A Chinese state-run media outlet has launched a fresh attack on Australia's AUKUS submarine deal, adding to growing diplomatic tensions over Beijing's expanding military power.

Matthew Dunn - 6 November 2026

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China has reacted to a scathing Australian inquiry into the country's $368 billion AUKUS submarine deal, with state-owned media demanding the Albanese government abandon the controversial defence pact, warning it could drag the country into a conflict with Beijing.

In an editorial published Thursday night, the state-run China Daily accused Australia of blindly following the United States and warned the nuclear submarine agreement threatened regional peace and Australia's sovereignty.

"Blindly following an extraterritorial power in pursuit of enhanced military capability cannot deliver genuine security for Australia," the Beijing mouthpiece declared.

The editorial encouraged opposition to the AUKUS plan from within Australia.

"More and more Australian people are recognising the significant risks associated with the project," the editorial wrote.

"The latest report reflects a concentrated voice of rational forces within Australian society."

The state-run publication declared withdrawing from AUKUS was the correct decision for Australia, arguing the country risked sacrificing its own security to advance American military interests.

"Australia has every reason to make the right choice," the editorial claimed.

"Withdrawing from the AUKUS program is the correct path for Australia to protect its own interests and help maintain regional peace."

China voices its ongoing opposition to AUKUS pact

Beijing has long opposed the security pact widely seen as a direct response to China's rapid military growth and increasing influence in the Indo-Pacific.

China's Foreign Ministry has repeatedly urged Australia, the US and the UK to abandon what it calls a "Cold War mentality".

The China Daily article follows a separate diplomatic clash with Australia last week, after Defence Minister Richard Marles accused China of undertaking the world's biggest military build-up since World War II, putting pressure across Southeast Asia.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun rejected the criticism, insisting Beijing's expanding military capabilities were intended solely to protect its national interests.

"The relevant party should view this objectively and stop making irresponsible comments," he said, according to the official transcript.

(continued)

>>25236055

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Australian inquiry demands AUKUS be scrapped

The Chinese editorial follows the release of a damning report from an independent, crowdfunded Australian inquiry that called for the nuclear submarine program to be immediately abandoned.

Led by former Labor minister Peter Garrett alongside former Australian Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie, one of five commissioners, the five-month inquiry concluded AUKUS represented an extraordinary waste of taxpayer money.

"After carefully considering all the material presented to us, we conclude that AUKUS is the worst, most costly and riskiest defence decision ever made," Garett said.

"AUKUS compromises our national security, erodes our sovereignty and commits us to any future conflict in support of US war plans. AUKUS definitely does not keep us safe."

The inquiry warned the program's eventual cost could approach half a trillion dollars once nuclear waste management was factored in, while questioning whether Australia would ever receive the promised submarines.

Its 17 recommendations included immediately scrapping the submarine acquisition plan, developing a cheaper alternative and establishing a royal commission to investigate how Australia became involved in the agreement.

The inquiry also called for an urgent government audit of AUKUS spending and the suspension of plans for a US naval base near Perth.

Organisers said the investigation attracted more than 1,000 written submissions and raised $220,000 through crowdfunding, with hearings held across eight Australian cities.

Defence expert questions AUKUS inquiry findings

The inquiry has faced criticism from Australian defence experts, with former naval officer Jennifer Parker questioning its independence and warning that scrapping AUKUS could leave the country without a viable submarine capability in the 2030s.

She argued the report failed to offer a realistic alternative to the submarine program, despite calling for its immediate cancellation.

"Perhaps the report's most glaring omission is that it offers no viable replacement to AUKUS," she wrote.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/chinas-blunt-message-over-australias-368-billion-aukus-defence-deal-make-the-right-choice-013844372.html

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202611/05/WS6aec85b6e4b03ebf8519a9a2.html

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xw/fyrbt/lxjzh/202610/t20261029_12049496.html

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>>25182196

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>>25233673

Submarine capability gap prompted US nuclear fleet rotation in Perth, key AUKUS architect reveals

CAMERON STEWART - November 06, 2026

One of the key US architects of AUKUS has revealed that the Pentagon predicted Australia would have a submarine capability gap in the 2030s – a fact the Albanese government has never admitted.

Abe Denmark, who led the Pentagon’s work on AUKUS under the Biden administration, said this looming capability gap was a key driver of the plan to ­rotate US submarines out of Perth from late next year.

The government has always denied there would be a submarine capability gap between the retirement of the current Collins-class fleet and the arrival of AUKUS submarines.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian in Washington, Mr Denmark said the plan to ­rotate US nuclear submarines through Western Australia from late next year, known as Submarine Rotational Force (SRF) – West, was a critical part of the AUKUS plan to help fill the looming Australian capability gap.

He said the presence of the US submarines in Perth would help the defence of Australia, increase the availability of submarines for the US Pacific fleet and provide important training in submarine maintenance for an Australian workforce.

“One of the foundational ­requirements of AUKUS from day one was how do we make up for the gap that Australia is going to have with the retirement of Collins class,” Mr Denmark said. “It’s going to take a while for SSN-AUKUS to come online, so we have this gap.

“The best option was what turned into SRF-West, because it provided Australia with a great capability to defend itself, or for the US to help defend Australia. But it also gave Australia the opportunity to gain vital experience, both in terms of your submariners, but also in terms of your dock workers, your workforce and getting and building social licence amongst the Australian people to get used to the idea of nuclear submarines operating out of Australia. I think SRF-West is critical.”

The Virginia-Class submarine USS Colorado will be the first US boat assigned to SRF-West in late 2027, with the force projected to eventually increase to four US ­attack submarines and one UK submarine. The Albanese government confirmed earlier this year that SRF-West would not be for a capped time period but would be an “enduring” element of US force posture in Australia.

The government has always argued that there would be no gap in submarine capability because it said ageing Collins-class boats would be given a major Life of Type Extension (LOTE) to keep them operational until the 2040s, when Australia would have at least three Virginia nuclear submarines. But the LOTE plan has been heavily scaled back, raising fresh doubts about the ability of the navy to keep the Collin boats in the water until enough AUKUS submarines arrive.

Mr Denmark said the debate over the AUKUS plan was now over in Washington, with the concept being widely accepted across the spectrum of politics, military and industry in the US.

“There’s much less discussion about whether AUKUS is in everybody’s interest or is this the right thing to do. Now everybody’s much more focused on implementation and delivery. The Trump administration has announced a lot of investments in shipbuilding, including on submarines, with new shipyards, new installations, new facilities to boost the capacity of the US industrial base, which I think is positive,” he said. Mr Denmark said it would take time for these investments to improve the current production rate of Virginia-class submarines of around 1.2 a year to the desired rate of around 2.33 boats a year. Some critics have said that unless the production rate increases, a future US president might refuse to sell subs to Australia from 2032 because it would undermine the strength of the US Navy. But Mr Denmark said there was nothing in the AUKUS agreement linking production numbers to the decision to sell subs to Australia.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/submarine-capability-gap-prompted-us-nuclear-fleet-rotation-in-perth-key-aukus-architect-reveals/news-story/eb9ffd91402cac204562c07f70ae4c1d

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Julian Assange shares first photo of new baby daughter

Maria Bervanakis - Nov 9, 2026

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his wife Stella have announced the arrival of their third child, a girl, and shared the first public photo.

Assange, 55, and Stella, 42, already share two boys, Gabriel, 9, and Max, 7, both conceived while Assange was living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

“The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves, #sheshere” he wrote alongside a photo of himself tenderly touching the bub’s tiny hand as he holds her tight.

The baby’s face is covered by a heart emoji.

Followers were quick to point out the line was from the movie The Terminator.

Stella reshared the post on her X account, writing “So happy and very tired … she’s so cute … and loud! Thanks for all the messages! #Sheshere @julianassange”.

The couple in September announced they were expecting their third child in October. #OctoberSurprise”, Assange wrote under a post by Stella he reshared on his X profile.

Stella’s post included a photo of her holding her baby bump while Assange wraps his arm around her shoulder.

In the caption, Stella wrote, “HAPPY NEWS! This new life would not have been possible without all those who fought to bring @JulianAssange home,” followed by heart emojis.

Assange followed up the post with a thanks to his supporters, “this new life is thanks to everyone who fought for my freedom”.

Assange returned to the social media platform after 8 years absent.

He announced his return to X with a simple two-word post, ‘I’m back’, on September 17.

The WikiLeaks founder was released from a British prison in June 2024 after agreeing to a plea deal with US authorities, ending a years-long legal battle over his extradition to the United States.

Assange had spent more than five years in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison after previously living for almost seven years inside Ecuador’s embassy in London.

He founded WikiLeaks in 2006 as a platform for publishing classified and sensitive material supplied by sources and whistleblowers.

WikiLeaks came to international prominence in 2010 when it published a classified video showing a 2007 US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed about a dozen people.

It later released tens of thousands of classified US military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan, about 400,000 files concerning the Iraq war and more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables.

The disclosures drew international attention and scrutiny from US authorities, who later pursued criminal charges against Assange over his role in obtaining and publishing classified information.

Also in 2010, Swedish authorities sought Assange over allegations of sexual offences, including rape, which he denied.

After losing a legal battle against extradition to Sweden, Assange entered the Ecuadorean embassy in London in June 2012 and sought asylum. Ecuador granted him political asylum and he remained inside the embassy for almost seven years.

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Swedish prosecutors discontinued their investigation in 2017, but reopened it after Assange left the embassy in 2019. It was discontinued again later that year, with prosecutors saying the evidence had weakened considerably due to the passage of time.

Assange’s time in the embassy ended in April 2019 when Ecuador withdrew his asylum and British police arrested him. He was subsequently sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaching his bail conditions and was held at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison while fighting extradition to the United States.

US prosecutors charged Assange with 18 offences, including charges under the Espionage Act, over WikiLeaks’ acquisition and publication of classified material supplied by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

US authorities alleged Assange conspired with Manning to obtain classified information and that WikiLeaks published documents containing the unredacted names of people who had provided information to US forces and diplomats, putting them at risk.

Assange and his lawyers fought his extradition, arguing the prosecution raised concerns about press freedom and the ability of journalists to receive and publish classified information.

The legal battle ended in June 2024 after Assange reached a plea agreement with US prosecutors.

He was released from Belmarsh and travelled to Saipan, in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, where he pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disclose classified national defence information.

A US court handed Assange a 62-month time-served sentence, reflecting the time he had spent in British custody while fighting extradition.

Assange then returned to Australia, landing in Canberra on June 26, 2024, ending a legal saga that had stretched for more than a decade.

The Australian government had repeatedly raised his case with the US and UK governments and said following his return that the matter had “dragged on for too long”.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/julian-assange-shares-first-photo-of-new-baby-daughter/news-story/a83f26dd2a50cd69bc19ae04f8e5368e

https://x.com/JulianAssange/status/2119415727065338255

https://x.com/Stella_Assange/status/2119607648907870642

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Top NSW One Nation candidate repeats ‘frankly outrageous’ conspiracy theory in protest speech

Anthony Segaert - November 9, 2026

One Nation’s top NSW upper house candidate alluded to the far-right “great replacement” conspiracy theory in a protest speech at the weekend that Premier Chris Minns labelled “frankly outrageous and racist”.

Stuart Bonds, the top upper house candidate for the party in NSW, told protesters at a rally against “mass migration” on Sunday that “we are being demographically replaced inside our own nation”.

“We are in the fight of our lives. Make no mistake,” he told protesters in Sydney, adding the “socialist plan” was to “destroy and bring down and tear down the fabric of your civilisation”.

Minns on Monday described the remarks as “horrific” and reliant on “a conspiracy theory that’s been imported from the US here to Australia”.

“It makes me think: well, this bloke’s heading the ticket for One Nation,” he said. “If they win the election, what ministry is he going to have? Trade, education, treasury?”

One Nation is a growing threat to NSW Labor in the March 2027 state election and Minns repeated his view that Mike Newman, One Nation’s leader in the state, will “either be the premier or the opposition leader”. Resolve polling shows 25 per cent of NSW voters intend to vote for One Nation in March.

After joking about a man named “Sanjay” who had crashed into the protest organisers’ truck before the event on Sunday, Bonds said he would fight against Australia’s “demographic suicide” and becoming a “special economic zone of Asia”.

The great replacement theory, which began in the late 1800s, posits that European and Western populations are being deliberately and systematically replaced by non-Western populations. Bonds made references to Asia in his speech.

Federal Assistant Multicultural Affairs Minister Julian Hill said it was “sadly not surprising a lead One Nation candidate is openly pushing racist, white supremacist conspiracy theories”, according to AAP.

“The ‘great replacement theory’ is a widely discredited far-right, nationalist conspiracy with antisemitic roots. It’s also mathematically nonsensical … Australians can draw their own conclusions as to why One Nation constantly gets embroiled in issues of race and culture and want to import that kind of chaos and division into our beautiful country.”

During the speech – in which Bonds also covered abortion rates, white South Africans on “stolen land” and the Bondi Beach shooters – the One Nation candidate said he didn’t accept that “an immigrant arriving yesterday is as Australian as you or me”, to cheers from the crowd.

“If we don’t support Australian mothers having Australian children, we are going to pay for other cultures’ children to be brought up in our lands,” he said.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/top-nsw-one-nation-candidate-repeats-frankly-outrageous-conspiracy-theory-in-protest-speech-20261109-p61ckr.html

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One Nation candidate accused of importing ‘racist’ MAGA theory

Madeleine Bower - Nov 9, 2026

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A top One Nation candidate for the NSW state election has been accused of spouting a debunked anti-immigration conspiracy theory promoted by elements of the US MAGA movement after he told a weekend rally in Sydney that native-born Australians were being replaced by migrants.

Premier Chris Minns condemned as racist the comments by Stuart Bonds, who heads One Nation’s NSW upper house ticket, a position that on current polling is almost certain to catapult him into parliament at the March 13 election.

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, whose Coalition is bracing for heavy losses to One Nation at the election, was asked about Bonds’ remarks said any comments that were divisive were not worth making. She again would not rule out dealing with One Nation after the election if it meant forming government.

Bonds told a rally on Sunday hosted by the hard-line anti-immigration Australian Lobby Group: “Make no mistake, we are being demographically replaced inside our own nation,

“If we don’t support Australian mothers having Australian children, we’re going to pay for other cultures’ children to be brought up in our lands,” he said, in a speech that was posted as video on Facebook.

“The socialist plan is to destroy and bring down and tear down the fabric of your civilisation and in some weird world they’re going to rise to the top of the heap and they’re going to take over and be the rulers of the ruins.

“We’re expected to believe that an immigrant arriving yesterday is as Australian as you and me. I don’t accept that.”

Bonds, a coal industry mechanic from the Hunter Valley, cited abortion figures across Western countries before asserting Australians were being replaced.

Minns said Bonds’ comments were “frankly outrageous and racist statements about replacement theory”.

“[It] is just a conspiracy theory that has been imported from the US here to Australia,” he said.

Sloane told reporters on Monday it was “not worth” making comments that are “divisive” and “that don’t help cohesion”.

“Everyone who lives in this country is Australian,” she said.

“What we need to address though is the consequences of massive population growth under Anthony Albanese’s watch.”

Still, Sloane would not rule out forming a post-election coalition with One Nation should that be the only way to form government.

“I have been very clear that we are intending to be a government in our own right come next March,” she said.

NSW Liberal MPs have privately said they expect One Nation to gain a significant number of members in both houses of parliament, believing a post-election coalition would need to be entered into with the party to form government.

Federal Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly said Bond’s comments went “against everything we stand for as Australians”.

“Australians from migrant backgrounds are not replacing Australians. They are Australians,” she said.

“Questioning someone’s right to belong because of their race or ancestry is not a debate about immigration. It is divisive and dangerous.”

(continued)

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The “great replacement theory” is a widely criticised far-right nationalist belief that white Europeans and Western populations are being systematically replaced by non-white migrant immigrants. The theory has been widely debunked, with demographers and economists dismissing it as mathematically flawed with a fundamental misunderstanding of how populations change over time.

Still, the theory has become mainstream in the US with parts of the Make America Great Again movement frequently using terms like “invasion” or “replacing” to describe demographic change.

Asked if he believed in replacement theory, Bonds didn’t answer directly but cited net overseas migration data saying it was “a mathematical equation” that most Australian residents have at least one parent born overseas. (Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 census data shows more than 48 per cent of residents have at least one parent born overseas.)

Asked about abortion, Bonds said: “I’m pro-choice, but I believe it is disingenuous and dishonest to say we’re not having enough children but then not talk about the fact that there’s 100,000 children a year that are aborted.”

NSW One Nation leader Mike Newman would not support Bonds’ comments and did not answer directly when asked if he believed in replacement theory.

“My view has always been that we are a nation of immigrants,” he said.

“One Nation’s core fundamental belief, and mine too, is be bloody Australian.

“It’s not to say you can’t celebrate your religious festivals or your cuisine or culture. That’s got nothing to do with it. If you have the privilege to live in our country, embrace it.”

The comments are not the first time One Nation members have suggested Australians are being replaced by immigrants.

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts was asked in May how to “keep our people” in light of declining birth rates and incoming immigration in an online interview with controversial content creator Lisa Jane Spencer.

In response Roberts said: “What we need [is] more white women to have kids”.

https://www.afr.com/politics/nsw-one-nation-candidate-accused-of-importing-racist-maga-theory-20261109-p61ck0

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Coalition, One Nation poised to preference each other ahead of Labor

ANTHONY GALLOWAY - 9 November 2026

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The Victorian Coalition and One Nation were on Monday moving to put each other ahead of Labor on their how-to-vote cards in key seats throughout the state, a move that would deepen losses for Ben Carroll’s government at the Nov­ember 28 election.

The Victorian Nationals have resolved to preference One Nat­ion ahead of Labor. The Liberals are poised to follow suit after ballot positions were drawn on Monday afternoon, but decisions will be made on a seat-by-seat basis depending on concerns about individual candidates.

Senior figures in the parties insisted no formal preference deal had been reached, but there was a growing expectation they would preference each other over Labor.

The Liberals were also considering putting the Greens last in inner-city seats, reversing their 2022 decision to preference the minor party ahead of Labor.

In many seats, Coalition parties could still recommend a second preference for a candidate with little chance of winning while ranking One Nation above Labor; Pauline Hanson’s party may do the same.

The move would mean the Liberals and Nationals would benefit from One Nation preferences in contests against Labor, while One Nation could catapult Labor in seats where the Coalition doesn’t finish in the top two.

The latest Newspoll for The Australian showed the Coalition on a statewide primary vote of 33 per cent, Labor on 24 per cent and One Nation on 20 per cent. While this would likely result in a majority government for Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, One Nation is believed to be polling high in particular seats including Ripon, Melton, Morwell and Pakenham. One Nation is also on track to win up to eight upper house seats.

The upstart party’s preferences will be instrumental in deciding whether the Coalition can jump Labor in several contests.

There has been trepidation from some within the Coalition that One Nation could repeat its decision at the South Australian election to have an open preference ticket, but a One Nation source on Monday indicated that neither the Coalition nor Senator Hanson’s party should be helping to re-elect Labor MPs. “Any party directing preferences to Labor this election is endorsing 12 years of corruption and incompetence,” the source said.

“Only a vote for One Nation will guarantee the real change that is desperately needed to take our state back from the career politicians who created this mess.”

It is understood One Nation was prepared to run an open ticket in Victoria only in response to any move by the Coalition to preference the party below Labor.

With the Liberals still reserving the right to preference against individual candidates where it considers their conduct or views egregious, this still leaves a degree of uncertainty.

Senior figures in all parties were due to finalise their preferences on Monday night and Tuesday morning following the drawing of the ballots for all 88 seats.

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Some within Labor have floated the idea of running an open ticket in regional seats in response to the Coalition’s move, which could result in One Nation being elected over Nationals MPs throughout the bush.

Senior Labor sources said it would not do this on principle. “Jess Wilson should take a leaf out of her hero John Howard’s book, and preference Labor above One Nation,” a senior Labor source said. “One Nation is a plague on both our houses and she alone can stop it.”

Senator Hanson last month called Ms Wilson to come to the table to discuss how to remove Labor from power. “You’re going to struggle to win in your own right. And if it means you actually have to get your tail between your legs to get rid of Labor in this state, then do it Jess. Get rid of your ­arrogance,” she said.

Sources in both parties said no formal preference deal was needed to come to the decision to put each other ahead of Labor.

The “teal” independent challenging Ms Wilson in Kew, Sophie Torney, said the Liberal Party’s preferences would confirm “what we’ve suspected all along”.

“By doing this, Jess Wilson is amplifying and legitimising the hatred and division One Nation is spreading,” she said

The Australian revealed last week that Liberals were divided over whether to again put Greens ahead of Labor, which many internally were critical of doing at the 2022 election. Some pushed to put the Greens at the bottom of the ticket, while others argued the party’s priority should be to inflict the heaviest possible defeat on Mr Carroll’s government.

Senior Liberal sources said on Monday there had been “movement” towards putting the Greens last in inner-city contests but no final decision had been made.

Such a decision could help Labor keep three seats against challenges from the Greens, and potentially win Richmond off the minor party.

Meanwhile, Labor preferences could provide decisive in deciding whether the Liberals can retain Prahran against the Greens. Some Liberals are hopeful Labor will run an open ticket in this seat, following the move of federal MP Josh Burns at last year’s federal election to not direct preferences.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/coalition-one-nation-poised-to-preference-each-other-ahead-of-labor/news-story/08023141e7069c50d6d70d3c55c6c0e8

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Mr Marles said every dollar of expenditure needed to be accounted for, as the country moved into new “complex” geopolitical situations.

“We face the most complex and in some ways the most threatening landscape we have faced since the end of the Second World War,” he said.

“As a result of that our government has significantly increased defence expenditure … We have done 12 times as much in the last four and half years than what the coalition did in its nine years in office.

“Every dollar that resources them is precious which is why we are making these decisions.”

Thousands rallied to protest the Victoria Barracks Sydney sale

The backdown followed intense public backlash, with NSW Premier Chris Minns joining former prime minsters John Howard, Tony Abbott and Paul Keating, in voicing their displeasure with selling the sites.

Thousands of protesters – including veterans, community members and political figures such Mr Howard and Mr Abbott – joined a community rally to save Victoria Barracks on October 25.

While some have rallied against what they had described as a fire sale, others warned the site needed to remain in Defence hands given its strategic position in Sydney.

Opposition says fight to keep Victoria Barracks not over

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has vowed to keep fighting to retain four military properties, including Sydney’s Victoria Barracks, in Defence hands, warning Labor’s decision to abandon their sale does not settle questions over their future.

Mr Taylor said the Coalition wanted guarantees the sites would remain active Defence facilities, and flagged further battles over other military properties earmarked for disposal.

“Some welcome news this morning that we’ve forced Anthony Albanese to overrule his Defence Minister Richard Marles and cancel Labor’s plans to sell off Victoria Barracks Sydney, Victoria Barracks Melbourne, Fort Queenscliff and RAAF Williams Point Cook,” he said on X.

“Congratulations to all Australians and every veteran who fought for this victory to protect our history, our heritage, and our vital defence bases.”

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/anthony-albanese-scraps-sale-of-historic-victoria-barracks-following-fierce-public-backlash/news-story/114fe2ae6f50bafe2ec2ef61e5385a4f

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n_vUbEzi_8

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Reflecting on Giuffre’s legacy, Amanda said she learned the “biggest” power someone has is “using your voice.”

“We recently had the privilege to relaunch SOAR, which is Speak Out, Act, Reclaim. That is us continuing Virginia’s work to be the resource for survivors,” Amanda said. “We will be advocating for a lot of legislation this year. Virginia’s Law, along with World Without Exploitation, will be bringing that to the Hill this year with Equality Now support as well. There are so many spaces and things to get involved with. We’re pushing that Epstein Files Transparency Act, too.”

Sky shared that “my very favorite thing about Virginia is that the one thing they could not take away from her was her joy and her happiness, and she reminded me every day to smile, appreciate it.”

At the event, Mariska Hargitay posthumously presented the Equality Now Courage Award to Giuffre.

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star said that “courage, as we know, is not the absence of fear.”

“Courage is Virginia knowing that to stay silent would’ve been easier. Courage is knowing that not having to tell, to tell again, to prove, to withstand scrutiny, disbelief and judgment would’ve been so much easier, but she spoke out just the same. Virginia asked us to imagine a world in which no one is too powerful to be held accountable,” Hargitay remarked.

“She used the power of her voice to help bring us closer to that world, to create a space for other survivors to be heard. She founded SOAR - Speak Out, Act, Reclaim - to help survivors of sexual abuse heal and speak out. And at the heart of this award for Equality Now is the recognition that the courage she gave to the world, at great personal cost, leads to change,” the actress continued.

Sky and Amanda Roberts accepted the award on Giuffre’s behalf.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

https://people.com/virginia-giuffre-family-honor-her-legacy-1-year-after-death-exclusive-12240514

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22lUoZ5YZ_4

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Lawyers for Andrews, Allan attend day one of royal commission hearing

At the start of hearings on Monday, royal commissioner Chris Kourakis warned that “time is ticking” for people in the government and construction industry to make voluntary submissions to the commission.

Lawyers for the two former Victorian premiers fronted the first day of hearings into block one of the construction royal commission.

Sixty people were on hand as the hearings began on Monday.

Running across the bench table of lawyers, separate legal representatives for Mr Andrews and Ms Allan identified themselves.

The two former premiers have not been seen at or around the office building hosting the royal commission in Collingwood.

Mr Kourakis said he expected to make “strong findings” on “how the state and private enterprise” acted in relation to a major bridge project at Sunbury in Melbourne.

Those in attendance were told the first block of hearings – focused on the Sunbury level-crossing removal – were expected to run for 10 days.

Warning action will be taken if witnesses threatened

Counsel assisting the commission, Mr Young, made it clear threats to witnesses would not be tolerated.

“Every witness in this case study has been compelled to attend. They have no choice about giving evidence, and the law protects them for doing so,” Mr Young told Monday’s hearing in an opening statement.

“It is a serious criminal offence to threaten or intimidate a witness, to punish a worker for giving evidence or information to this commission, to pressure a witness to give false evidence or to destroy evidence.

“Counsel assisting will not wait for a formal complaint.

“If we learn that a witness has been threatened, punished, or warned off, we will ask you to act to protect that witness, and we will ask that the matter be immediately referred to Victoria Police.”

Detail of responses to royal commission outlined

Mr Young said 24 closed-door hearings had been held so far, and the commission had issued notices to produce 110,000 documents.

The evidence presented had been collected in part through private hearings, Mr Kourakis said.

Only half of the companies, entities and individuals invited to make an early voluntary submission had responded, Mr Young said.

Of those, 45 companies responded and three had declined, he said.

“Some of those responses have been frank and helpful. Most were detailed and answered the specific questions the commission had asked,” Mr Young said.

Several disclosed conduct that appeared to be misconduct, corruption or crime.

“They include allegations of the involvement of organised crime on projects and of fraud, including invoices for shifts that weren’t worked,” Mr Young said.

“Other responses were not printed or helpful.

“Some appear on their face to be untrue. Others show a surprising lack of knowledge in matters the submitter should have known about.”

Block one of royal commission investigates Gap Rd project

The commission is expected to hold two weeks of public hearings this month, beginning by examining events at the Gap Rd project as part of the Sunbury rail line upgrade between 2019 and 2023.

The project involved the removal of a level crossing and construction of a new rail bridge and underpass.

The hearing will examine the events surrounding a stoppage of work on June 6 and 7, 2022, including a meeting at the CFMEU offices on June 7 and any arrangements made during the meeting that led to work resuming.

Mr Young said there were few documents that recorded “critical moments” on those two days in June 2022.

The commission said in a statement it would investigate “the arrangements made following this meeting” and “what the arrangements cost, who paid for them and what the state knew and did”.

Ms Allan was the minister for public transport and major projects at the time.

Details of allegations from a government planning expert were published in The Age, alleging the government had already decided the airport rail link would go through the suburb of Sunshine, and $3.8bn-$4.6bn of unnecessary tunnelling work was added to the estimates of other routes to make them less appealing.

The unnamed public servant claimed his job was threatened by senior public servants when he raised the issue, and he believed that threat of losing his job had come from Ms Allan.

A spokesperson for Ms Allan denied the allegations and said the former premier would co-operate with the royal commission.

(continued)

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New premier called royal commission as one of first acts

Premier Ben Carroll quickly delivered the promised royal commission after rolling Ms Allan in July.

The inquiry begins just 20 days before Victorians head to the polls, where Labor’s 12-year reign is expected to end.

Preliminary hearings have already been held, but the first witnesses are expected to be called this week.

While Mr Carroll’s years of work alongside Mr Andrews and Ms Allan have been the subject of campaign attack ads, the new Premier has pitched the royal commission to voters as a chance to expose any nefarious connections between the Labor Party and the labour movement.

The royal commission will hear evidence up on level nine of an office block that is only a few years old, the construction of which was plagued by the collapse of two building companies during the pandemic.

Mr, Kourakis, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia has relocated to Melbourne to preside.

Mr Young began these preliminary hearings in late September with a broad warning.

“The allegations of corruption, criminal conduct, and serious misconduct in relation to major construction projects in Victoria are serious,” he said.

“The allegations about what was done and what was not done reach from the sheds at work sites to union offices, to boardrooms, government departments, and to ministerial offices.”

Mr Carroll was asked on the campaign trail if he regretted calling the royal commission.

“I said I’d do this in my first press conference, and now it is up and running as it should be,” he said.

“Victorians deserve answers, and through this royal commission, Victorians will get answers.”

Commissioner Kourakis is expected to deliver his findings in August next year.

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/premier-ben-carrolls-construction-royal-commission-starts-hearings-20-days-before-victorian-election/news-story/72a393cb9e660d8dbf667d1a49ba7dd7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F8FvcVSJhs

—

Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria

https://www.rcimcp.vic.gov.au/

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Jacinta Allan was warned CFMEU deals would cause $400m Big Build blowout, inquiry hears

EWIN HANNAN - 9 November 2026

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Former Victorian premier Jacinta Allan was warned before and after the 2022 state election, when she was transport infrastructure minister, that applying CFMEU inflated pay rates to traffic management workers would blow out costs on major projects by more than $400m.

Documents tabled on the first full day of hearings of the Big Build royal commission revealed government officials on two occasions in 2022 and 2023 briefed Ms Allan about the significant commercial implications of applying CFMEU rates across projects.

Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Young, KC, said the officials warned the cumulative high-level impact of converting traffic management industry rates to CFMEU terms and conditions was estimated to be “well in excess of $400m”. The briefing notes were sent to Ms Allan’s office in September 2002 and January 2023.

The revelations at the commission, being held just weeks before the November 28 state election, came as Mr Young warned state government officials they could face criminal prosecution if they fail to hand over documents.

Controversy also erupted on the campaign trail over revelations that lawyers appearing for Ms Allan and former premier Daniel Andrews were being funded by taxpayers.

Mr Young said it was “extremely concerning” that some parties had not complied with the terms of notices to produce documents, and the fact some parties had incurred delays as they awaited approval from “certain government committees, processes, or persons” was not a reasonable excuse to delay production. “Further delays may undermine the work of the commission,” he said.

The commission hearing on Monday focused on a CFMEU campaign waged against contractors on the Gap Road project in Sunbury in 2022, and how Victoria Police refused to intervene in the dispute, and WorkSafe inspectors did not visit the site until after the action was over and an agreement reached to lift traffic management pay rates and install a labour hire company preferred by the militant union.

Contractors on the Gap Road project made desperate calls to police and WorkSafe as CFMEU-related work stoppages at the Sunbury site became “more frequent”.

In a phone call made by a Rail Network Alliance employee to WorkSafe after works on the site ground to a halt, the employee said union officials were “without formally doing it, stopping work” on the project over site barriers.

WorkSafe was again phoned by the RNA on June 6, 2022. In the call, employee Neil Thompson said: “We’ve had a lot of union activity out here on site today in Sunbury to the point where we actually called Victoria Police to escort them off site.

“Historically (Victoria Police) said there’s nothing they could do … last week we were told by WorkSafe there was nothing they could do exactly.”

Mr Thompson could later be heard saying there had been repeated issues with Victoria Police. They “just seem like they don’t have any idea of what the requirements are”, he went on to say.

In an email to WorkSafe, Mr Thompson wrote: “We have called the police twice in the last two weeks without luck. They have attended the site and not really known how to approach this issue. Today they asked for our security to intervene and escort them off site.

“We feel that without intervention from WorkSafe, VicPol believe it to be a health and safety matter and do not want to intervene. Can you please escalate this through to your leadership ASAP?”

The commission heard four CFMEU officials stayed on the Sunbury site from 7.15am to 7pm on June 6, and two officials stayed on site through to 1.42am the following day.

According to a document tendered to the commission, a labour hire firm, Wagstaff, was told by the CFMEU “you guys better not turn up tonight otherwise we will smash you during the day”. Wagstaff left the site citing “union pressure”.

(continued)

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The action stopped after a meeting at CFMEU headquarters on June 7, but Mr Young said there are no written record or minutes of what was decided.

The commission is examining claims staff from the office of Ms Allan, who was then transport infrastructure minister, got involved in the dispute. After the intervention, it was ­alleged the CFMEU was able to ­install labour-hire company BK Labour on the project, along with CFMEU delegates. Ms Allan has denied the claims.

Mr Young told the commission that following the meeting at CFMEU headquarters, BK Labour, which had an enterprise agreement with the union, was engaged on the Gap Road project on June 10.

The commission heard BK Labour billed about $352,000 for the employment of the two health-and-safety representatives over a period of up to eight months, with the amount charged by BK Labour estimated to be 10-15 per cent higher than that charged by previous labour-hire firms.

A change in traffic control arrangements at the same time saw the application of CFMEU rates, which led to an 85 per cent increase in the cost of engaging traffic control employees.

Mr Young earlier quoted from a John Holland document noting the CFMEU’s “significant” relationship with the former Andrews government.

The union movement, the document said, played a critical role in the election of the government, both organisationally and financially.

“The Premier is factionally aligned with the socialist left, and the CFMEU is the key industrial organisation involved with that faction,” the document stated.

“We also understand that the CFMEU has unprecedented access to ministers and other key Victorian government stakeholders.”

Another document tabled in the commission showed how contractors discussed the pros and cons of dealing with the CFMEU, with the number one downside identified as being the “CFMEU gains control of our job”.

The document said an advantage of dealing with the CFMEU was that the Gap Road projects could be delivered “with less disruption – less relative to a full industrial campaign”.

Having a relationship with the union would also “further demonstrate to our client our credentials for managing industrial relations in a challenging Victorian environment”.

During his opening address to the commission, Mr Young said construction businesses have been intimidated into making large payments to organised crime figures who have had a hold on the construction industry for years.

The royal commission has seized more than 110,000 documents and held 24 private hearings relating to the Big Build program as its investigation into corruption allegations steps up.

Former Labor premiers Mr Andrews and Ms Allan have called in lawyers to represent them in the judicial probe.

Mr Young said the commission had written to 99 companies, organisations, and other entities asking them to tell the commission about any alleged corruption, criminal conduct or serious misconduct they were aware of, including by the entity itself, and by its own officers and employees.

Premier Ben Carroll says he is “pretty sure” taxpayers are funding lawyers for Ms Allan and Mr Andrews at the Big Build royal commission.

Asked if it was fair Victorians were funding their legal representation, Mr Carroll said: “Look, we need complete accountability and transparency, and follow all the rules as established by previous royal commissions.”

(continued)

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Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has accused Labor of forcing taxpayers to foot the legal bill for Mr Andrews and Ms Allan’s representation, declaring the arrangement does not pass the “pub test”.

Ms Wilson on Monday said the former Labor premiers should pay their own legal costs, rather than relying on taxpayers already burdened by Victoria’s mounting debt.

“Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan have bankrupted Victoria, they’ve trashed the future of the state and now Ben Carroll is allowing the taxpayer to foot the bill for them to be defended in the royal commission,” Ms Wilson said.

“It doesn’t pass the pub test, and for people who are eligible for pensions of more than $300,000, they can pay their own legal bill.”

Ms Wilson said the pair should be responsible for every cent spent on lawyers representing them at the inquiry.

Asked whether she would overturn the decision if elected premier, Ms Wilson said the Coalition would first seek legal advice on whether it had the power to do so.

“We’ll certainly take advice on that, around the ability for the government to overturn that, and if we can, we will,” she said.

“I think Victorians have had enough of the corruption that has run rife in this state, costing taxpayers $15bn under Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan.”

She said taxpayers should not be funding legal representation for the former premiers while Victoria’s debt raced towards $200bn.

“It doesn’t stack up, and it will not be permitted to happen under a government I lead,” she said.

The royal commission was called by Mr Carroll in August after he promised it on the day he toppled Ms Allan in July.

Ms Allan repeatedly refused to call a royal commission in the face of allegations that taxpayer-funded Big Build sites had been infiltrated by organised crime and corrupt CFMEU officials.

Commissioner Chris Kourakis promised to go after everyone responsible for wrongdoing, including “carpetbaggers” who corrupted the construction industry via “bribery and extortion”, as well as those far up the chain of responsibility.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jacinta-allan-faces-royal-commission-probe-over-alleged-cfmeu-favours-on-sunbury-project/news-story/65ab1f517dc07944b09c754a5e8c61bb

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CFMEU told Big Build firm it would be looked at ‘favourably’ for airport rail deal if it caved into union

EWIN HANNAN - 10 November 2026

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Former senior CFMEU official Joe Myles told John Holland executives that the construction giant would be looked upon favourably for the Victorian Labor Government’s future projects, including the multi-billion-dollar airport rail link, if it caved to union demands, the Big Build royal commission has been told.

The commission is probing the Gap Road project in Sunbury which was disrupted by CFMEU officials in June 2022 before a settlement was reached which resulted in the engagement of the union’s preferred labour hire firm, BK Labour, and traffic management company, CCL Traffic.

Steve Testolin, a general superintendent for John Holland, told the commission on Tuesday about a June 7, 2022, meeting at the CFMEU’s Victorian headquarters involving then Victorian CFMEU president Mr Myles, then fellow CFMEU official, Paul Tzimas, and executives from John Holland, one of the two construction firms jointly appointed to deliver the Gap Road project.

At that 2.30pm meeting, which followed two days of intense disruption by CFMEU officials at the Gap Road site, Mr Testolin said Mr Myles told John Holland that “we had to change our current labour hire and traffic control” companies working on the site, and appoint union health and safety representatives.

If it did, Mr Myles said John Holland would be “looked at favourably for future projects”, including being one of the preferred contractors for the state government’s Airport Rail link.

Labour hire workers on the Gap Road project were subsequently forced to resign from their employer, Zoom Recruitment, join BK Labour, sign up to the union and start paying $1200 in union dues.

Mr Testolin told the commission about how CFMEU-related visits to the project definitely increased in May 2022 in an attempt to gather “intelligence”.

Amid a flurry of right of entry requests, the CFMEU warned contractors and subcontractors that if they refused to stop work at the site, there would be “ramifications”. “If a contractor had work on another project, things would get escalated on those projects as well,” Mr Testolin said.

As level crossing projects in Victoria became more of a CFMEU-dominated area, John Holland was “left to fend for ourselves”, the commission was told.

“We were pretty much left standing alone,” Mr Testolin said, adding that government representatives, Victoria Police and WorkSafe refused to get involved as the CFMEU increasingly disrupted the site.

After WorkSafe refused “to come out immediately” to visit the site on June 6, 2022, after six CFMEU organisers turned up, police were called. They later arrived later that afternoon, but declined to intervene.

Mr Testolin said a “standoff” between the organisers and John Holland at the site then ensued.

There were “various” rights of entry again a day later on June 7, 2022, with CFMEU organisers standing out the front of the project, “not allowing us to proceed”.

At CFMEU headquarters, Mr Testolin said the John Holland executives engaged in small talk with Mr Myles and Mr Tzimas before the meeting started and Mr Myles asked: What do youse want?”.

“The room went pretty quiet,” Mr Testolin said, before he told Mr Myles, “ why don’t you cut the bullshit and tell me what you want?”

“It was put to us that we had to change our current labour hire and traffic control,” Mr Testolin said, adding that Mr Myles said if they did “we’d be looked at favourably for future projects”, including the airport rail link.

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WORKERS FORCED TO JOIN CFMEU

Glenn Tyrrell, a crane operator with labour hire company Zoom, told the commission on Tuesday that workers were called into the site’s lunch room, and told by representatives of the CFMEU and BK Labour that they were to cease employment with Zoom and start working for BK Labour.

Mr Tyrell said the workers were told they “had to” join the CFMEU and start paying union dues of about $1200 a year. He said it was the first time he had joined a union and he later resigned.

In the days before the lunchroom meeting, he recalled how CFMEU officials often disrupted work on the project by standing in front of machinery, sitting on water barriers, or insisting that equipment be inspected.

Mr Tyrrell, who was also a health and safety representative on the project, said when safety issues were raised on site when he was first elected, there “wasn’t any union present on site”.

“Things changed when there was a fairly heavy presence of unions on site (in 2022),” he told the commission.

Asked what union that was, he said it was the CFMEU, adding that officials, sometimes as many as four, would come onto the site, stopping works.

Mr Tyrrell said the CFMEU officials often disrupted works by standing in front of machinery, or by telling “the operator that he must stop” work.

“If you’ve got someone standing in front of you, you’re not going to operate a piece of machinery and continue to work,” he said, adding safety issues at the site were usually resolved by management from John Holland.

He said officials from the militant union would also come on site wanting to check or inspect equipment and, in the process, disrupting work at the site.

CFMEU officials issued eight right of entry notices on the project between May 25 and May 31, increasing the number to 23 notices over two days at the start of June

Mr Tyrrell recalled that work was halted on the project on June 6, 2022, due to “union officials being on site and serving notices … stopping works”.

“Once they come on site and they’re raising issues, and they’re in the work area,” he added when asked to elaborate on the disruption the militant union caused on the Sunbury project.

He also recalled one instance where a CFMEU official sat on water barriers at the site.

Robert Van Den Tol, a supervisor with John Holland at the Gap Road project, was the next witness to testify before the commission on Tuesday.

While he was a member of the CFMEU in his “early days” when he was “on the tools”, he was no longer in the union by the time he came to work for John Holland as a supervisor and superintendent on the Gap Road project.

It was heard that there were 56 union visits to the Sunbury site between January 27, 2022 and June 17, 2022.

Giving evidence via videolink, Mr Van Den Tol said that when works were stopped, construction activity was usually halted for about a day.

When CFMEU officials visited the site on June 6, 2022, he said they appeared to be “on a mission”, and had attended the project with “an agenda”.

Asked what he thought the CFMEU’s agenda was on that day, he said: “Probably to have one of their heads here.”

Earlier, Mr Van Den Tol told the commission that the Sunbury site was the one of the few “crews” to not have a CFMEU-affiliated HSR.

(continued)

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POLICE ‘DIDN’T DO MUCH’

The commission heard that police were called to the site on June 6, 2022, where, upon arrival, Mr Van Den Tol informed them that officials from the CFMEU were “trespassing”.

But the police “didn’t do much”, he said, adding that WorkSafe, who was also phoned about the union-related disruption that same day, “weren’t much help” either.

Following the June 7 meeting between the union and Ms Allan’s office, the situation “calmed down”, Mr Van Den Tol said.

The Big Build royal commission, which was called by Premier Ben Carroll in August after he promised it on the day he successfully toppled Ms Allan for the leadership in July, is probing alleged corruption on Victorian construction projects.

Royal commissioner Christopher Kourakis has promised to go after everyone responsible for wrongdoing, including “carpetbaggers” who corrupted the construction industry via “bribery and extortion”, as well as those far up the chain of responsibility.

As the commission got underway on Monday, it was heard that in 2022 Ms Allan, then transport minister, was warned that applying CFMEU inflated pay rates to traffic management workers would blow out costs on major projects by more than $400m.

Counsel assisting Chris Young, KC, said officials warned Ms Allan’s office in September 2022 and January 2023 that the cumulative high-level impact of converting traffic management industry rates to CFMEU terms and conditions was estimated to be “well in excess of $400m”.

Her office was also warned in documents tabled to the commission that the CFMEU enterprise bargaining agreement for traffic controllers had “the potential to significantly increase costs” on the state’s road projects.

POLICE SEIZE DRUGS FROM LABOUR HIRE CAR AND CHARGE DRIVER

Taskforce Hawk detectives have charged a man and seized drugs and false identity documents as part of an operation to crackdown on alleged drug trafficking on construction sites.

Police arrested a 36-year-old Melbourne man on October 11 who was driving a labour hire company vehicle, police said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The vehicle, police said, was stationary and blocking the intersection of Dudley Street and Wurundjeri Way in Melbourne.

Police searched the vehicle and allegedly found a traffickable quantity of methylamphetamine, as well as ecstasy, Diazepam, GHB, $2000 cash and fraudulent identification documents.

“The man was not fit to be interviewed at the time and was conveyed to hospital,” police said.

Detectives then raided an apartment in Melbourne’s CBD where they seized prescription drugs, counterfeit money and false identity documents including drivers’ licences, proof of age cards, Medicare cards and student ID cards.

The 36-year-old man has been charged with traffick methylamphetamine, traffick ecstasy, traffick 1,4-Butanediol, possess methylamphetamine, possess ecstasy, posses 1,4-Butanediol, three counts of make false document, fail to comply with direction to assist and possess prescription drugs. He was bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on April 23.

A woman, 30, who was present during the search is expected to be charged three counts of a dealing with the proceeds of crime.

“Hawk will allege that the man was involved in the manufacture of false drivers’ license and proof of age cards,” the police said.

Taskforce Hawk is leading the police investigation into criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry and allegations of serious and violent criminal behaviour.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/cfmeu-officials-blocked-machines-to-halt-sunbury-road-project-big-build-inquiry-hears/news-story/db242be146d98cf29534b4fed5c533c4

>>25159764

>>25162944

MP injured in alleged attack has condition downgraded to stable

Annika Rhoades - November 6 2026

Injured MP Helen Haines’ condition has been downgraded to stable, nearly three weeks after she was allegedly attacked outside her electorate office.

The independent member for Indi had both legs amputated after being repeatedly struck by a four-wheel drive in Wangaratta, in northern Victoria, on October 19.

The attack left her fighting for her life in a critical condition.

On Friday, the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne announced Dr Haines was now in a stable condition, and daily updates would no longer be shared.

The alleged attacker, 43-year-old Brendan Nugent, was charged with offences including causing harm to a Commonwealth public official and faced Wangaratta Magistrates Court in October.

He is yet to enter a plea and will return to court in February.

The alleged attack sparked daily reviews into parliamentarians' safety, with many in public-facing roles experiencing threats.

Security in Parliament House's public places has also been increased.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led tributes to Dr Haines when parliament returned for the first time following the incident.

Dr Haines was described as the "matriarch of the crossbench" by her friends and colleagues, some of whom were emotional.

The silhouette of a cockatoo, cut from orange card, was placed on Dr Haines' chair by close friend and colleague Zali Steggall.

The alleged attack has also led to efforts to protect parliamentarians from online harm, which will be top of the agenda at an international forum with Mr Albanese and his British counterpart, Andy Burnham.

The high-profile gathering will convene for the first time in 2027.

A fundraiser for charity Save the Children, set up by Dr Haines' family in lieu of flowers, has surpassed $1.4 million in donations.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9387189/mp-injured-in-alleged-attack-has-condition-downgraded/

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The inquiry heard the union engineered the crisis by exploiting the consortium’s vulnerability during a critical rail shutdown, known as an occupation, which had been planned for more than a year to construct a rail bridge and road underpass.

Aygur said that missing the occupation deadline risked delays of up to six months because track access had to be booked up to two years in advance. Contractual delay penalties would also cost the company millions of dollars a day.

“Leading into an occupation is where we’re most vulnerable,” he said.

Work at the Sunbury site stopped on June 6 after union officials entered the project, serving multiple safety notices.

WorkSafe records tendered to the commission showed union officials sat on water-filled barriers and stood directly in front of machinery to prevent crane lifts.

Frontline supervisor Robert Van Den Tol entered a note into the site diary on June 6: “union here from 730am till 600am no work started they are stopping us.”

Van Den Tol testified that when union officials arrived, they shut down the site.

Both Van Den Tol and Testolin told the inquiry that appeals to the safety watchdog and police proved useless.

When the contractor asked police to remove the officials for trespass on June 6, officers attended but took no action, concluding that the dispute was an occupational health and safety issue.

WorkSafe inspectors declined to attend immediately, telling site staff there was nothing the watchdog could do without a formal grievance.

Shown an internal email he sent to Aygur three days before the shutdown stating “we are on our own”, Testolin said project staff were stranded.

A confidential John Holland strategy paper drafted on June 3 outlined two options: maintain resistance to the union or open discussions on representation.

The paper warned that continuing to resist would cause project disruptions that would lead to “negative feedback to our client” and create “doubts from our clients about our ability to manage Victorian IR”.

It noted that collaborating with the union would allow the company to “Further demonstrate to our client our credentials for managing industrial relations in a challenging Victorian environment”, even though the primary consequence would be that the “CFMEU gain control of our job”.

Testolin testified that immediately following the meeting at the CFMEU headquarters concessions, the allegations of a safety crisis on the Sunbury site disappeared.

He said site entry notices fell from about 12 a day to one for the remainder of the build, and the presence of the union-appointed safety representatives produced no change to site safety.

Crane operator Glenn Tyrrell, the site’s original safety representative, gave evidence that he was stripped of his elected position without a vote and forced to join the CFMEU at a personal cost of $1200 a year.

Tyrrell testified that he and about 15 other workers were transferred from labour hire company Zoom to union-aligned firm BK Labour.

Despite previous evidence that the replacement labour hire firm cost the government substantially more, Tyrrell said his own pay rate did not change.

Premier Ben Carroll, speaking on the state election campaign trail, said it was “not good enough” that government departments were causing delays by failing to produce documents to the commission within agreed deadlines.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson called for the royal commission’s terms of reference to be expanded to investigate political incentives and the allocation of major project contracts.

The hearings continue before Commissioner Chris Kourakis.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/do-deal-or-lose-work-minister-s-office-freeze-out-threat-to-builder-over-union-disputes-20261110-p61d09.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fmbovAMiH8

>>25240524

CFMEU senior official boasted union had a ‘direct line’ into Jacinta Allan’s office

EWIN HANNAN and MARCUS DE BLONK SMITH - 11 November 2026

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Former CFMEU heavyweight Joe Myles boasted about having “a direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office” during a critical meeting at the union’s Victorian headquarters where union officials were pushing contractors to cave into its demands on a key state government project.

Former CFMEU organiser, Paul Tzimas told the Big Build royal commission that Mr Myles made the boast about the union’s influence on Ms Allan’s office at a 2022 meeting where he was demanding the union’s preferred labour hire firm, BK Labour, be installed on the Gap Road project in Sunbury.

Mr Tzimas said Mr Myles told the contractors that they risked losing future government contracts, including the Airport Rail Link, if they did not accede to the union demands.

Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Carr, KC, asked Mr Tzimas if Mr Myles had said anything in the meeting about the influence the union had over the government.

“Not exactly but there was a mention like, words to the effect, about sort of having a direct line to Jacinta Allan’s office,” he said.

He agreed that the comment was made in the context of the airport rail link project, which the contractors present were intending to bid.

The bombshell revelation came as former CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka was expelled from the militant union after facing 27 internal disciplinary charges, including claims he allegedly misappropriated more than $3m in union revenue.

In a statement, the CFMEU administration said on Wednesday its investigation found Mr Setka had failed in his duty as secretary of the union and allegedly diverted $3.3m in revenue from union merchandise and site vending machines to his companies.

CFMEU administrator Michael Crosby confirmed the expulsion of Mr Setka on Wednesday morning, vowing the union would continue to pursue him over the allegedly misappropriated funds.

Mr Crosby said Mr Setka, who resigned in 2024 following serious allegations of misconduct involving the union, did not respond to the allegations put forward by the CFMEU administration.

He was expelled for a legal maximum term of five years, with his expulsion taking effect immediately.

“John Setka held a position of responsibility but abused that privilege to take millions of dollars from the members of the CFMEU,” Mr Crosby alleged.

“John Setka’s conduct is shameful. He has failed in the most basic duties of a union official – to put members’ interests above all.

“CFMEU will continue to pursue him for the millions that his company has received, including any other misappropriation of union funds that he has been involved with.”

The Australian has sought comment from Mr Setka.

Gatto gold bracelet gift

The expulsion came as former Setka lieutenant and ex-CFMEU organiser Paul Tzimas told the Big Build royal commission that he accepted a gold bracelet from Melbourne underworld identity and industrial mediator Mick Gatto.

Appearing at the commission on Wednesday, Mr Tzimas was questioned about receiving the gold bracelet from Mr Gatto during a meeting in a street in the Melbourne inner suburb of Carlton.

Mr Tzimas said he had heard other officials had also received gold bracelets from Mr Gatto after reading the “Rotting From The Top” report by Geoffrey Watson that detailed the gifts.

He said he initially refused the bracelet but accepted it after Mr Gatto described it as an “olive branch” and was not designed to curry favour with him.

In his evidence on Wednesday, Mr Tzimas accused the alliance on the Gap Road project of having an “argumentative” and “combative” attitude when it came to safety on the construction site.

“It was a common thing that even the smallest or the simplest of fixes were contested and usually not rectified,” he told the commission.

“There was (sic) massive safety breaches there and, in my view as an official, corners cut there on things that don’t meet regulation, do not meet the act.

“It doesn’t mean that I didn’t have respect for the people working there … it just means that on the ground when we were doing our job, we couldn’t find common ground easily to resolve issues.”

The commission has previously been told CFMEU officials repeatedly disrupted works at the Sunbury site, including by standing in front of machinery, or by telling operators to stop work.

He recalled that police were called to the Sunbury project on June 6 after union officials disrupted works by standing in front of “diggers”. Mr Tzimas, who attended the site that day, denied obstructing machinery and removing keys from a digger.

(continued)

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He denied forcing his way to the lunch sheds to speak with workers at the Gap Road project on the evening of June 6. The former CFMEU official also rejected suggestions he swore or threatened workers at the site that if they worked that night they wouldn’t work again in Melbourne.

The commission has previously heard work on the Gap Road site during this period in early June 2022 was 24/7.

The commission earlier heard how WorkSafe Victoria gave employer complaints of the CFMEU obstructing work on a key project the lowest priority and did not attend the site until the day after contractors caved in to union demands.

Quinton Drury, a senior inspector with WorkSafe, was the first witness to front the Big Build royal commission on Wednesday.

Mr Drury, who was tasked with overseeing the Gap Road project in 2022, said WorkSafe often attended a major construction site in the event where a contractor or “duty holder” had alerted them to a “health and safety concern on site”.

In his view, he said complaints by CFMEU officials about the adequacy of a certificate for a water barrier at the Sunbury project did not pose an imminent threat of injury or death to a worker.

He agreed that the CFMEU conduct did not fall within WorkSafe’s scope as it was an industrial issue.

Despite CFMEU officials exercising powers to stop works at the Gap Road project in June 2022 that they did not have, the commission heard it was not cause for WorkSafe to respond more promptly.

The incident was given the lowest rating of Level 10, which gave the regulator 10 days to respond.

Mr Drury said he attended the site on June 8, the day after a meeting at CFMEU headquarters between union officials and construction firm John Holland which led to contractors caving in to union demands.

The commission, which is probing alleged corruption on the state’s construction sites, is this week examining events at the Gap Road level crossing project in Sunbury, in Melbourne’s northwest, in June 2022.

In particular, it is investigating claims that staff from the office of former premier Jacinta Allan, who was then transport infrastructure minister, were involved in a dispute between the CFMEU and John Holland and CPB.

After the intervention, it was alleged the CFMEU was able to install labour hire company BK Labour on the project, along with CFMEU delegates. Ms Allan has denied the claims.

Repeated work disruptions

On Tuesday, the commission heard evidence that CFMEU activity at the Gap Road project had escalated during early June 2022, with officials from the union repeatedly disrupting works at the site, including by standing in front of machinery or by telling operators to stop work.

Following a “standoff” between union organisers and John Holland, one of the joint partners on the Sunbury project, a meeting was held at the CFMEU’s Victorian headquarters.

At that meeting, on June 7, union officials Joe Myles and Paul Tzimas complained to John Holland executives that the company was “not toeing” the CFMEU’s line, and was “misbehaving” by allowing work over shutdown periods and long weekends.

Mr Myles, who was then branch president, told executives to change their “current labour hire and traffic control” companies on the project, and appoint union health and safety representatives, Steve Testolin, a general superintendent for John Holland, told the commission on Tuesday.

If it did, Mr Myles said John Holland would be “looked at favourably for future projects”, including being one of the preferred contractors for the Airport Rail link.

The commission also heard on Tuesday that John Holland was warned that a Victorian Labor government “minister’s office” had made it clear the company would not be awarded any more state contracts unless it cut a deal with the CFMEU on the Sunbury project.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/former-cfmeu-rising-star-paul-tzimas-to-front-royal-commission-over-sunbury-project/news-story/5334114f1a47f39630548dc66d94dbbc

https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/the-man-whose-job-it-was-to-get-bikies-hired-on-govt-building-sites-20261111-p61d5m

Remembrance Day services held across Australia to mark 108 years since end of World War I

Annabel Whitehouse - 11 November 2026

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Thousands of people across the country have gathered to take part in Remembrance Day ceremonies, honouring those who died serving in conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

This year's Remembrance Day marks the 108-year anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I - a conflict that claimed the lives of 60,000 Australians.

Ceremonies across the country shared a minute's silence at 11am, marking the moment guns fell silent across the Western Front and the war ended on November 11, 1918.

In Canberra, the national ceremony at the Australian War Memorial was attended by Governor-General Sam Mostyn, Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, Federal Nationals MP Michael McCormack - who represented the leader of the federal opposition, and Defence Force Chief Admiral Mark Hammond.

The Governor-General laid a 92-year-old scarlet poppy wreath, which had been brought out of the memorial collections for the ceremony.

Australian Army Chaplain Kelly Horne, who helped train Ukrainian soldiers, gave the commemorative address at the Australian War Memorial, honouring the fallen Australian soldiers who "paid the ultimate sacrifice".

She said on Remembrance Day, "We remember to remember."

"Let's remember those who have been forever wounded by war, and let's remember that we can have hope. We can be hope. We can give hope," she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Australian defence personnel in Singapore on his way to COP31 in Türkiye.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor said today was a chance for Australians to honour all who have served, suffered, and sacrificed for the nation in wars and military operations.

One Nation leader and Ben Roberts-Smith attend Brisbane ceremony

In Brisbane, Senator Pauline Hanson and war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith attended Remembrance Day commemorations.

Mr Roberts-Smith said, like all Australians, he wanted to pay his respects to those who had "made the sacrifice to give us this great country".

"Remembrance Day is not about any one person; it is certainly not about me," he said.

"Remembrance Day is about us taking a moment to reflect on the sacrifices that were made for us and, like everyone else, that is what I'm doing today."

The Victoria Cross recipient has been charged with five counts of war crime murder, relating to his time serving in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

He has strenuously denied the allegations and said in an interview last month he would continue to fight the charges.

Elsewhere in Brisbane, a crowd of 300 gathered at a service in the bayside suburb of Cleveland, where wreaths were laid at the base of a recently damaged war memorial.

RSL branch president and veteran Robert Wilson said the incident had galvanised the community's support for local veterans.

Mr Wilson estimated the crowd had tripled last year's numbers.

And he said gathering around a damaged monument had not disheartened the attendees.

"The feeling is that they're not going to stop us doing what we normally do," he said.

"Everyone is even more determined."

(continued)

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Sacrifice can be 'something we acknowledge without truly understanding'

At Sydney's Martin Place Cenotaph, New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley, Premier Chris Minns, and federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek were among the dignitaries, veterans and serving Australian Defence Force members who laid wreaths.

Royal Australian Navy Rear Admiral Anita Williams gave the centrepiece address, in a speech which focused on the relevance of past conflicts, including those now beyond living memory.

"Because memory fades … sacrifice can become something we acknowledge without truly understanding," she said.

"Those who served carried the burden of defending Australia. The duty remembrance asks of us is far simpler - Not merely to remember their sacrifice, but to honour it. To prove worthy of it."

'I was in battle at age 18'

Among the attendees at a ceremony in Adelaide was 104-year-old World War II veteran Reg Swanborough.

"I joined up with 32 others on the 26th of July 1938 and to the best of my knowledge … two others and myself came home alive," he said.

Mr Swanborough said he was 15 when he enlisted, and the war began the following year.

"I was in battle at age 18," he said.

Veteran Gary Stewart left Vietnam 55 years ago today to come home.

"Most of us came home, one of our mates got killed over there … that was tough," he said.

'I think how lucky I am'

In Perth, hundreds of West Australians gathered at the State War Memorial in Kings Park.

World War II veteran Robert 'Bob' Bentley-Taylor, now aged 101, served in the navy in Borneo and the Philippines and shared what Remembrance Day meant to him.

"It feels like I'm giving duty to people who lost their lives in the war and [who had] bad times," he said.

"I think how lucky I am. I just come here to respect them."

Crowds gather to pay their respects in Melbourne

Melburnians also paused to pay their respects to those who have lost their lives in wars and military operations this Remembrance Day.

Today marks the 92nd Remembrance Day at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance.

Silvie Paladino sang You Raise Me Up accompanied by the Royal Australian Navy Band, and there was an RAAF flyover.

Wreaths were laid by the premier, the leader of the opposition, members of state and federal parliament and the Lord Mayor.

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'Not just an exercise in nostalgia'

In Tasmania, Remembrance Day was marked with services around the state, including at the Hobart Cenotaph.

Unfortunately, the cannon failed to fire after the Ode of Remembrance.

Retired Colonel Ross Byrne told the assembled crowd it was a day to honour those who had served and reflect on the cost of war and conflict.

Among those laying wreaths were the Tasmanian Governor Caroline Wells and Hobart's new Lord Mayor Charles Wooley.

Governor Wells said the service was more than just a commemoration of a past peace.

"Remembrance is not just an exercise in nostalgia; it is a moment to face the world's brokenness and to recommit to our duty in the present," she said.

"Remembrance Day is a reminder that the freedom we enjoy in this country has been paid for with blood, that peace has been purchased with sacrifice, and the duty to protect both rests now with us."

Darwin's personal history

Hundreds of service people gathered alongside military families, government officials and civilians for Remembrance Day in Darwin.

Tributes flowed for Corporal Brendan Hannam, who died in a military training exercise in the Northern Territory earlier this year.

Commanding Officer of HMAS Coonawarra Amy Bulters grew up 1,000 kilometres east of Darwin, and has worked in all corners of the world, including Antarctica, as a meteorologist for the navy.

"As a kid in the Northern Territory, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that one day I'd be down in the coldest place on earth, looking out the window at seals and penguins," she said.

Captain Bulters said Darwin had a "strong connection" to its military history.

"In 1942, with the bombing of Darwin in World War II, the war came to Darwin," she said.

"For Territorians, it's ingrained in the history of what happened on the streets, on the harbour and in the community here."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-11/remembrance-day-services-held-across-australia/107137596

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Delivering the commemorative address at the Australian War Memorial, army chaplain Kelly Horne said it was incumbent on the nation to remember those who had served and survived, as well as the fallen.

“Let’s remember those who have been forever wounded by war and let’s remember that we can have hope,” she said, speaking at the ceremony attended by ­Governor-General Sam Mostyn and Mr Marles.

In 2023, Chaplain Horne helped ready Ukrainian army recruits for combat at a training camp in Britain involving Australian soldiers. She told how she was touched when the troops presented her with a farewell gift – a bar of Ukrainian chocolate. “It meant the world to me,” she said. “It was at that point that I realised that it had mattered that I turned up.

“I wasn’t training them in weapon handling or combat. What I had given was kindness and hope.

“Don’t get me wrong, these trainees would become soldiers the following week. They needed every military trick in the book, and our amazing contingent of mostly young Australians gave them everything they could.

“But me showing up also mattered because I too gave them something. On Remembrance Day we remember to remember.”

The remains of Lieutenant Anderson, 23 at the time of his death in September 1917, were among those of 11 Australians recently identified in the ADF’s ongoing effort to give unknown WWI soldiers their name back.

The young officer was killed during the Battle of Menin Road alongside up to 1200 other Australians; another 3800 were wounded, fell ill or were captured in the bitter fighting near the Belgian town of Ypres, part of the Allies’ ill-fated Passchendaele offensive on the Western Front.

The Armistice to end the war that was supposed to end all war took effect on November 11, 1918. But successive generations of Australians would fight and die in WWII, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

As Mr Albanese said: “Lest we forget.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/richard-marles-reveals-discovery-of-lost-wwi-relative-as-australia-marks-remembrance-day/news-story/a1ee776f61bb713cf551b1238c303816

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZENs5Lcd0ek

>>25244287

>>25244301

Eleven unknown Australian soldiers killed in World War I formally identified

Charlie Gore - 10 November 2026

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Eleven Australian soldiers killed in World War I have been formally identified for the first time to ensure their service and sacrifice are recognised by future generations.

The men, long commemorated as unknown soldiers, were identified through extensive historical research, archaeological investigations, and DNA analysis.

The newly identified Australian soldiers are:

• Private Roy Hawkins, 3rd Battalion AIF, of Armidale, New South Wales

• Sergeant Charles Henry Nicholls, 46th Battalion AIF, of Ballarat, Victoria

• Lieutenant Howard Victor Morey, 58th Battalion AIF, of Lilydale, Victoria.

• Lieutenant John Maher Lyons MC, MM, MSM, 17th Battalion AIF, of Randwick, New South Wales

• Lieutenant Andrew Anderson, 7th Australian Machine Gun Company AIF, of Bundaberg, Queensland

• Second Lieutenant James Albert McMichael, 37th Battalion AIF, of Melbourne, Victoria

• Private Thomas Easton, 30th Battalion AIF, of Adamstown, New South Wales

• Corporal Harry Maitland Whiteoak, 2nd Australian Field Ambulance AIF, of Preston, Victoria

• Private George Laban Lupson, 2nd Australian Field Ambulance AIF, of Fremantle, Western Australia

• Private James Campbell, 2nd Australian Field Ambulance AIF, of Queenstown, Tasmania

• Lance Corporal Alexander Joseph Jack, 2nd Australian Field Ambulance AIF, of Brunswick, Victoria

Descendants of the identified soldiers, French authorities and independent researchers assisted Defence's Unrecovered War Casualties - Army (UWC-A) team, the Office of Australian War Graves and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The federal government announced the identities for Remembrance Day, which this year marks 108 years since the Armistice was signed to end the conflict.

Name to be added to headstone 109 years after death

Among the 11 newly identified soldiers is Lieutenant Andrew Anderson, who was killed in action on September 20, 1917, during the Battle of Menin Road near Ypres, Belgium.

He was 23 years old.

Researchers say fellow soldiers buried Lieutenant Anderson on the battlefield near Westhoek, with an eyewitness account describing a roadside burial marked with a wooden cross.

In March 1919, an unknown soldier's remains were recovered from almost the same location and reinterred at Hooge Crater Cemetery.

The original grave registration record noted "Anderson on shirt", indicating that the soldier's clothing bore the name Anderson, but his identity was not established at the time.

More than a century later, an independent historical researcher identified the possible connection between that unknown soldier and Lieutenant Anderson.

In 2020, she submitted her findings to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the UWC-A team, who took up the investigation and established an evidentiary link between Lieutenant Anderson and the unknown Australian soldier.

Now, 109 years after his death, Lieutenant Anderson's headstone at Hooge Crater Cemetery can be replaced to commemorate him by name.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the identification was "deeply personal" for his family since Lieutenant Anderson was his great-uncle.

"Like so many Australian families, we've carried the story of a relative who served their country and never came home," Mr Marles said.

"For more than a century, Andrew Anderson's final resting place was unknown.

"To know where he now lies and to see him identified by name is profoundly meaningful for my family.

"His story is a reminder of the sacrifice made by a generation of Australians whose service continues to shape our nation. We are proud to remember that sacrifice this Remembrance Day."

(continued)

>>25244318

2/2

An engraved wedding ring

A wedding ring engraved with the name Clarice helped to identify Private James Campbell.

Private Campbell was in the Medical Corps serving in northern France when a bomb hit him and three others, killing them instantly, on May 5, 1917.

His great-nephew James Walsh said he had not known Private Campbell existed - his family first learned about him when researchers contacted them looking for DNA samples.

"There were four bodies in this railway siding, but they didn't know whose body was whose, except for my great-uncle because he had a ring on his finger," Mr Walsh said.

"It was a chaplain that buried them, and he wrote up the notes probably 12 months after the event and put them in a bag, and it's only in more recent times they've found these notes in the bag."

Mr Walsh said the notes helped to identify the area where the bodies were buried.

Research into Private Campbell's life also uncovered a memorial notice his wife Clarice published in the Age newspaper in 1918.

"I've suggested that the words she put in that obituary be used for the headstone," Mr Walsh said, adding that Private Campbell would be reburied on May 5 next year - 110 years to the day since his death.

Veterans' Affairs Minister Matt Keogh said it was through the dedication of military historians, archaeologists, researchers, forensic specialists, and the family members that the soldiers had now been identified.

"The identification of these soldiers who were killed in action across France and Belgium will provide long-awaited answers for families who have experienced generations of uncertainty," Mr Keogh said.

"Our commitment to this ongoing work is the ultimate expression of the timeless adage - Lest We Forget."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-10/eleven-australian-soldiers-killed-wwi-formally-idenified/107370258

https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/media-releases/2026-11-11/eleven-australian-soldiers-identified-more-than-century-after-first-world-war

https://images.defence.gov.au/assets/Home/Search?Query=S20263503&Type=Simple

>>25244287

Defence Australia Tweet

Nov 11, 2026

Defence joins all Australians on Remembrance Day to honour, acknowledge and remember the courage, sacrifice and service of those who have served our country and those who gave their lives in service to our nation.

At the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, we reflect on the end of the First World War and honour the generations of Australian service personnel who have since served in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

The year 2026 marks the 108th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice between Allied forces and Germany, which ended the First World War (1914-18). On 11 November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after four years of continuous warfare. More Australians were killed and wounded in the First World War than in all subsequent conflicts combined.

As a mark of respect, Australians are encouraged to pause at 11am for one minute’s silence and remember all those who died or suffered for Australia in all wars and armed conflicts.

Today we remember their courage, service and sacrifice.

Lest we forget.

#YourADF #WeWillRememberThem #LestWeForget

A list of welfare support services is available to anyone who may be affected by this post:

Defence All-hours Support Line – 1800 628 036

Defence Member and Family Helpline – 1800 624 608

1800 IM SICK – 1800 467 425

Open Arms – 1800 011 046

Defence Employee Assistance Program – 1300 687 327

Lifeline – 13 11 14

Emergency services – 000

https://x.com/DefenceAust/status/2120245107651723442

>>25244287

For the Fallen

Laurence Binyon - 1914

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Lest We Forget.

—

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae - 1914

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

—

We Shall Keep the Faith

Moina Michael - 1918

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led;

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

>>25077571

>>25244287

U.S. Embassy Australia Tweet

Nov 12, 2026

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

I’m humbled to join new friends in Canberra to remember the young Australians and Americans who did just that, side by side. - Amb Brat

#RemembranceDay

https://x.com/USEmbAustralia/status/2120620736482025762

>>25035706

>>25182196

>>25077571

>>25247833

Donald Trump’s Australian ambassador David Brat lauds progress of AUKUS submarine project

Donald Trump’s newly arrived ambassador to Australia predicted young people will soon also get swept up in the “excitement” of the $368 billion AUKUS project.

Andrew Greene - 12 November 2026

Donald Trump’s newly arrived ambassador to Australia praised the “incredible” AUKUS project and predicted young people will soon also get swept up in the “excitement” of the $368 billion nuclear-powered submarine endeavour.

US Ambassador David Brat toured the visiting Virigina-class submarine USS Colorado, which is undergoing scheduled maintenance at HMAS Stirling Naval base on Perth’s outskirts.

“It’s an absolute honour to be in Australia,” the former two-term Republican congressman said in one of his first public appearances since taking up the high-profile diplomatic posting to Canberra in late September.

“And the one thing I wanted to do right off the bat is thank all of the armed services folks from both sides, Australia and the United States, in the room with us today,” the ambassador said standing alongside acting Prime Minister Richard Marles.

After meeting personnel stationed at HMAS Stirling naval base, the conservative former economics professor declared: “the talent and the human capital embedded in these people is just simply incredible”.

“I studied economics way back when I was young. One third of economic growth is attributable to human capital, right? So, a third is capital, a third is technical growth, but a third human capital.”

“You’re not going to see any more technology embedded innovation in human capital than in this project right here. Right. And it’s going to spread. And then when the young people in Australia and the United States see the excitement here and what military is doing and how we’re all sharing together, it’s incredible.”

As well as describing AUKUS as an “incredible positive story of working together”, Ambassador Brat talked up the deterrence value of the military alliance between Australia and the United States.

“The US is sharing 100 per cent. This is team ball with Australia. Australia is sharing with us. The alliance is large, and with all of us working together, we feel a strong sense of deterrence,” Mr Brat said.

“That’s the way we view the AUKUS project. It’s complete team ball across the board. The subs were sharing, its interoperability across both of our militaries working together, working on the subs in port, sharing the technology together”.

This year The West Australian newspaper reported that US officials were privately alarmed at the protection levels of Australian bases, including HMAS Stirling and RAAF Base Darwin, where significant numbers of US personnel and military assets will soon operate.

Under the first stage of the ambitious AUKUS program, American and British nuclear-powered submarines will begin regular deployments to WA next year, before Australia acquires second-hand Virginia-class boats from the US in the 2030s.

Then finally in the 2040s Australia is hoping to begin operating a new fleet of locally built nuclear-powered submarines based on a British design to be known as SSN-AUKUS.

At HMAS Stirling, Mr Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy also confirmed $88 million would be spent creating a future AUKUS workforce amid ongoing warnings of a local skills crisis.

The 2026 Nuclear-Powered Submarine Workforce Strategy aims to boost training and employment opportunities for up to 275 apprentices and trainees in submarines and shipbuilding in Western Australia and South Australia over the next six years.

During Thursday’s visit to HMAS Stirling, Ministers Marles and Conroy also expressed confidence that WA-based company Austal would be able to remain Australia’s Strategic Shipbuilder, despite a potential takeover of its larger US subsidiary.

“They’re effectively two separate entities in the way they operate due to the requirements of US legislation,” the Defence Industry Minister told reporters.

“So, we’re very confident, no matter what happens in the United States, that Austal Australia will continue to serve as our strategic shipbuilder, and they’re undergoing a massive growth in capability and skilled workforce.”

https://thenightly.com.au/australia/donald-trumps-australian-ambassador-david-brat-lauds-progress-of-aukus-submarine-project-c-23153846