Pine Gap protest 'turns mainstream'

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Pine Gap, 19 km south-west of Alice Springs, is regarded as the USA’s most important base on foreign soil. It has grown steadily in its 60 year history while intermittent protests have persisted in calling for its closure.

But last weekend’s “convergence”, which attracted hundreds of local and interstate participants, was different, according to spokesman Jorgen Doyle: It occurred against a background of dropping public support for the US-Australian alliance.

He says this is caused by America’s role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Australians' growing concern about AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, aimed at promoting a secure Indo-Pacific.

Mr Doyle points to the recent Lowy Institute Poll about the importance of the US alliance: Support for Australia’s pact with the United States, known as ANZUS, has been the most resilient finding in the 22-year history of the Lowy Institute Poll, the institute says on its website.

“This year, support for the alliance is again strong, with nearly three-quarters of Australians (73%) saying it is either ‘very important’ or ‘fairly important’ to Australia’s security.

“This represents a seven-point drop from last year’s Poll and a ten-point drop from 2024, marking the sharpest sustained fall in support for the alliance in the history of the Poll."

Mr Doyle says it would be “absurd” to ask what percentage of the population – Australian and Central Australian – shares the protesters’ views.

“These things are in flux. Taking action against that base, yes, it’s been done before, yes, nobody has succeeded in closing the base, but the geo-political juncture is different.

“It means a different thing to demand it now.”

During the 1987 convergence in Alice Springs “the US wasn’t at war and wasn't participating in a genocide.

“It’s becoming increasingly mainstream to be sceptical or anxious about the US alliance, about the increasing militarisation of this continent,” says Mr Doyle.

Positive public responses to related local protests – against Halloween, for example – exceeded negative ones, he says.

NEWS: Given that the presence of Pine Gap is almost entirely a Federal Government issue, and all three major Australian parties are clearly in favour of the base, what point is there to protest in Alice Springs?

DOYLE: The Greens Party has a role to play in presenting a credible de-escalatory position within the Australian Parliament. There is a lot of work to do with unions to bring them back to a vocal anti-militarist position.

Mr Doyle says members of the Labor Party should take up “bold positions” against the AUKUS alliance: “I think we see a big groundswell" with the public inquiry by Peter Garrett.

Activist Aahana Nag

“I think we just need the Labor Party to be incredibly scared of what it considers to be its base, and we need that base to take up strong positions in opposition to AUKUS, strong positions against the Australian Government’s participation in the genocide in Gaza.”

NEWS: What about the local Labor Party? It’s almost non-existent at the moment, isn’t it.

DOYLE: It is almost non-existent. I’m not sure how important it is that the local Labor Party opposes Pine Gap. I think it’s unlikely. As you said, the policy decisions that we ultimately want to see happen would take place at the Federal level.”

PHOTO at top: The convergence organisers claimed they blocked the “only” access road to the base on which activist Aahana Nag had locked herself to the steering wheel of a vehicle to obstruct the roadway. In fact Pine Gap has an alternative access, via Ilparpa Road. Mr Doyle said he was aware of that, but claimed the base had not been using it this time and had allowed some staff to work from home on the days of the protest. Photos supplied by the organisers.