Dave Milner
Bipartisan suits went on an AUKUS junket to sell out Australian sovereignty
Fresh after the Labor National Conference, Federal Labor Senator Raff Ciccone takes a smiling picture in Washington, proud to announce his delegation participating in the 2026 Australian American Leadership Dialogue (AALD) in Trump’s America. Ciccone joins the defence junta of the bipartisan political class—a cohort of militaristic-minded MPs that function as the steam that moves AUKUS ‘full steam ahead.’
Amidst the hot air about non-existent submarines, and the reality that our sovereignty is being shovelled into the US imperium by a cluster of boring backbencher types placed into safe seats, the stalwarts of AUKUS have rushed off like young kelpies to roust about the US death-machine with the promise of excitement, treasure and, more importantly, an opportunity for a sweet plum job post-politics.
Joining Ciccone on the parliamentary adventure, was veteran of the ‘Wolverines’ James Paterson, leader of the tour Speaker of the House Milton Dick, and a cadre of bipartisan inglorious bastards including Senator Jonathon Duniam; Senator Susan McDonald; Alison Penfold MP and Zaneta Mascarenhas MP. They took a happy snap in the Department of War, as the Trump Administration crafted Truth Social posts somewhere nearby about annihilating Iran.
Amongst a meaningless cacophony of “shared values”, Raff and his buddies are meeting with senators and congressmen who voted to expand US-Israel defence technology cooperation in bill H.R. 8800. Our elected officials look to combine our military and sovereign future with the United States while the US deepens its military and intelligence integration with Israel — negotiating with people who have poor reputations and short vision. Just like Rep. Ronny Jackson, the demoted rear admiral, a heavy drinker who made sexual and denigrating comments about a female subordinate, and who has been investigated for potential personal use of campaign money.
Ciccone met with more all-American characters in the war caucus of Washington and its Lindsey Graham-like champions, including Rep. Joe Courtney, Co-Chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, and Rep. Rob Wittman. Wittman is a hardline pro-Israel voice who, after the October 7 attacks, called for expedited US arms shipments, the positioning of American military forces to deter Iran, and maximum-pressure sanctions on Tehran. He has also been caught on camera faking a phone call for roughly 90 seconds in June 2026 to dodge questions about potential Social Security cuts. Courtney has repeatedly affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself and opposed efforts to cut core aid.
The US conducts a war of aggression against Iran in concert with Israel and rattles the world like a cage, while Australia’s finest parliamentarians blindly frolic in the United States. All this while even more traditional vassals of the US are beginning to express their doubts. As US allies start to choose their national interest rather than bend over at the insistence of Washington, and countries like the Philippines question Washington’s long-term intentions, Australia doubles down into the opaqueness of AUKUS, steered by a group of people who seem more taken with their future after politics than the sovereign interests of a country they have sworn to protect.
Among the broad grins and proud postures of the latest AUKUS junket underway in Washington, people like Ciccone represent the corporate sociopathy that has infiltrated public office. Corporate logic only sees success in measures of its own career, and that is the one thing to be preserved, even at the expense of the privately owned companies or publicly owned countries that it hollows out. When applied to the role of government, the corporate politician sees the same logic, to the detriment of the nation.
There is a danger to having corporate-thinking sharks who only care about their own careers, and the danger is multiplied when these people get involved with the operations of running a sovereign country. People like Peter Khalil are another example — more US exceptionalist than Member for the working class seat of Wills. Khalil has spent more time in his career playing with the dark arts of foreign intelligence, diplomacy and the military-industrial complex than he has spoken to the Lebanese diaspora in his seat – people whose country is being smashed by US/Israeli policy. It is the Ciccones and Khalils, the Pynes and the Hockeys — this class of person is the driving force behind the sovereign transfer of Australia, all for access to the gravy train in the warmongering industries of the Washington beltway.
US shipyards have declared that they don’t have enough capacity to meet Department of Defense quotas for submarines, let alone some kind of submarine for Australia in the future. Australians are faced with vapourware submarines, more hardwired US military presence, and an interoperable military that may include equipment with kill switches that can’t be used for anything the US does not approve. So, aside from the fact that the submarines are DOA, apart from the United States renditioning sovereign leaders in Venezuela and bombing girls’ schools for Benjamin Netanyahu in Iran, regardless of the tide of public opinion against the nuclear-powered misadventure and the ceded sovereign land for US bases and troops, “full steam ahead with AUKUS” sounds more like a threat to Australians from our politicians than a promise.
The majority of Australians oppose the shady Scott Morrison-spun defence eyesore that was devised on the back of a napkin after months of the former Prime Minister having secret meetings with CIA chief Mike Pompeo. And as the Australian public, the Pentagon, and even pro-alliance US politicians and former naval brass express their concerns and doubts about the agreement, it is the Pat Conroys, the Senator James Patersons and all the bipartisan brothers and sisters in arms that press forward with a delirium that ultimately preserves the nightmare that is AUKUS.
Much of AUKUS looks less like a coherent defence strategy and more like an elaborate career-protection racket dressed up as national security. The project is already revealing its absolute folly: Australia is pouring tens of billions into infrastructure, base upgrades, housing and industrial contributions that deliver immediate, tangible benefits to US force posture and the American submarine industrial base, while the promised Australian-owned nuclear submarines remain distant, delayed, reduced to second-hand boats, or potentially never arriving at all. The real payoff appears to sit after politics — the post-parliamentary board seats, consultancy gigs, think-tank sinecures, ambassadorial postings and revolving-door roles that reward those who lock the country deeper into the alliance architecture. For the politicians, bureaucrats and “national security” professionals involved, the submarines themselves are almost secondary; what matters is the irreversible entanglement that keeps the same circle of people indispensable, well-connected and employable long after they leave office.
We don’t want our leaders to go off and do training on how to be US-style leaders. We don’t want our MPs going off to Israel to learn how to forgive its atrocities. In the AUKUS environment, where hundreds of billions of dollars could be evaporated by disingenuous partners, the national interest must come first. Ultimately, AUKUS is less about submarines and defence than it is about securing post-politics careers for the suits that drive it. Australia pays for bases, housing and industrial support that serve US forces first, while its own sovereign capability remains uncertain or absent. The real cost is the progressive transfer of national sovereignty in exchange for the personal advancement of those who were meant to protect it.
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