• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Wage Peace - Disrupt War

Strategic, bold, direct and discursive action to disrupt militarism in Australia and our region.

  • About Us
    • Making Change
    • Wage Peace Wins Global Peace Award 2023
    • Wage Peace, Disrupt War and Repair the Planet!
    • Smashing the Social License of an Industry Geared to Terrorise.
  • Campaigns
    • Disarm Australia
      • Demilitarise Education
        • BAE recruiting Year 6 kids
        • Demilitarise Education – Campaign Background Briefing
        • Interrupting the Pipeline: Defence in STEM
        • The military has invaded our classrooms.
        • Spotlight on UNSW
        • USyd Tied to Arms Industry
          • ABC & Weapons Silence A Speech
        • Demilitarise UQ: A Petition to UQ from an Autonomous Student Group
      • Stop Harms Dealers
        • Blockade Lockheed
          • Australia exports 155mm shell exports to Germany & the IDF.
        • No AUKUS: No Submarines!
        • Boeing is OUT OF CONTROL
          • Boeing, the Pentagon and Australian-based Propaganda Units
          • Boeing is a Weapons Corporation at UQ – Beware Boeing’s Wars
          • Trial of the Boeing Disrupters
        • Conversations with the Arms Dealers: Thales and the first of December
        • EOS – Just one more Merchant of Death
          • Is this justice? EOS arms deals to Saudi Arabia and UAE
        • Nioa Munitions: An excess of public money to fund police and the gun lobby
        • Nioa should rule out exporting weapons to Indonesia
        • Rheinmetall – making a killing
        • Stop Lockheed Martin
      • Legacy Campaigns
        • US out!
          • Fight to ditch the Aus-US Alliance
          • Close Pine Gap Website
          • Signing Up For War: The US Military Agreement With Australia You Probably Know Nothing About
        • Toxic SAS
          • SAS absorbed toxic US military culture
        • Whistleblowers
          • Support McBride – It’s About Exposing War Crimes
    • Frontier Wars
      • Frontier Wars
      • Frontier Wars Ceremonies
      • Boe Spearim’s Fabulous Frontier Wars Podcast – Must Listen!
      • Commemorating the Frontier Wars in Gimuy 2021
      • Frontier Wars – Lest We Forget 2021
      • Frontier Wars’ Desert Pea Wreath
      • Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars 2020 – online gathering
    • Peace In Papua
      • Peace In Papua
      • Peace In Papua – Thales, recall your bombs
      • War on West Papua
      • Make West Papua Safe, Australian Federal Police action
      • West Papua is Rising Up: Act now with Papuans to #MakeWestPapuaSafe
    • Disarm Police
      • Nine hours, no bullets!
      • NIOA – Arming the Intervention
  • Disrupt Land Forces
    • dlf 24
      • Report: Dangerous Policing DLF24
      • Journalist’s take on DLF 2024
      • Tactical Disruption Works
    • dlf 22
      • War Criminals need not apply; a summary of DLF22
      • Disrupt Land Forces 2022
      • Land Forces – A Killer of an Expo
      • Facilitating Exports: The Global Supply Chain and Landforces Brisbane
    • dlf 21
      • We massively disrupted the Land Forces weapons expo
      • Love against the machine – Land Forces 2021
      • Disrupt Land Forces – weapons company tour
  • Resources
    • Weapons Dealers in Australia: A Map
    • Peace Pod: an aural adventure in anti-militarist activism.
      • Get Your Armies Off Our Bodies: Trailer
      • Peace Pod launched!
      • Resources for Students
      • Resources for Teachers
      • Child’s Play? Militarism in the classroom
        • E6 Jangan Bunuh Kami Lagi / Stop Killing Us: West Papua Part 2
      • E8 We Need These Minds: MIlitarism in Universities
        • E5 Jangan Bunuh Kami Lagi / Stop Killing Us: West Papua Part 1
      • Revolving Doors, Corruption Gateways
      • War Stories
      • War Stories: BONUS – Afghan Peace Volunteers
    • Defending Dissent in Militarised ACAB Straya
    • References
    • Articles
      • War = Peak Toxic Masculinity
      • War and Peace- articles by Andy Paine
        • The military industrial complex rides on the glamorous mythology of war
          • Doxxing and Security Culture
            • Stop Arming Israel
              • Wage Peace Submission to the AUKUS Inquiry, August 2026
                • Stop the F35s: a mobilisation in three waves
              • Stop Arming Israel
              • Blockade Bisalloy: A Report from the ‘Gong
                • Bisalloy Makes Steel to Kill
              • F-35 Supply Chain
                • Taking Action Against Ferra and the F35
                • Nupress in the F35 Supply Chain – Newcastle
                • What’s Marand got to do with it?
                • Ferra Engineering, Boeing & the Queensland Government
              • Arms Embargo Now!
                • Nth Qld tungsten burns in Palestine
                • Harms Dealers: Thales in partnership with Israel Aerospace and Elbit.

Disarm Australia

Pine Gap: A tiny crack, but enough to let some light in

Peace Crimes by Kieran Finnane tells the story of activism at the secret US spy base near Alice Springs. Six Peace Pilgrims trespassed on the grounds of Pine Gap in 2016, leading to a court case in 2017 where the activists were charged under terrorism laws and faced up to 7 years jail. Their quest was to save lives by stopping the function of Pine Gap for even a day, and to expose the horrors of Pine Gap’s role in illegal US wars, characterised by drone strikes and killing of civilians.

Pine Gap: A tiny crack, but enough to let some light in

 

…because War Crimes Matter

Members of the #ToxicSAS have been issued with ‘formal notices’: they will have to defend acts defined as ‘war crimes’ against poor people in Afghanistan. See article below.

This is the same militarisation, born of #foreverwar, that has poured into US culture. It is now being enacted by a #militarisedpolice in response to the largely nonviolent #BLM movement. White supremacy and colonisation are at its roots.

We acknowledge and remember that this militarised supremacy first rolled out in Australia aimed at Aboriginal people with a sustained wave of violence.

Even though the #ToxicSAS get massive media coverage, we suggest there are several elements missing from public discussion that a keen peacenik’s eye will want to point out. It is up to us to force these issues into visibility with voice and action.

Save this Image: Save this image and the one below to your phone AND to your computer and use it regularly when you comment on this issue. Share it when the issue hits the news. Comment on new articles. 

Your Voice: Promote veterans voices: Remind people that veterans have demanded the exposure of these war crimes. They have different reasons. But they have taken risks and are front-line affected. For example, their peers continue to suicide. Truth and facing up is an important element in psychological healing. They were used by the corrupt States of USA and Australia: Trained as killers. Now training the Indonesian police and spreading the US bastardry.

Your Voice: Call for the release of the Brereton Report: Even Andrew Hastie, the WA member of parliament, an ex-soldier, has requested for the Brereton Report to be released and be transparent.

But it is not clear yet that we will see it. This is the Defence Minister’s responsibility and Raytheon’s person on the inside @LindaReynoldsWA is highly problematic. Contact her and politely berate her.

Your Voice: Ensure trials are heard in the open: We are witnessing more and more secret trials. It turns out that even our own activist trials at Pine Gap were practice for this sort of excessive secrecy. War Crimes trials must be heard in the open so we can understand the dynamics of militarised, industrialised abuse.

Your Voice: Use the hashtag #NameSoldierC: The Soldier involved in killing the unarmed Afghan man in the wheat-field, as revealed earlier this year on Four Corners, should be named. Other alleged murderers in our society are named before trial. Please, use this hashtag. Follow @Wagepeaceau on twitter. There are still not enough of you on twitter! 

Your Voice: Make Governor General David Hurley visible and central – and his band of Top-Brass – throughout any trials. Wage Peace urges you to OFTEN remind people that “Governor General” General David Hurley was Chief of Defence when these murders occurred. Like Kerr before him he did the work of the US. Ask why the ‘investigation’ Hurley oversaw, came up with nothing despite the helmet-cam recording and the credible report by a witness.

 

  • Hurley oversaw the war crimes.
  • Hurley’s ‘investigations’ of war crimes led to nothing until he left the post. Activists experienced the violence directly at Swan Island – that’s when the violence was revealed at the parliamentary Senate estimates.
  • Hurley must have lied about the state of the war to the Australian people and to the parliament, in line with the lies of his US counterparts
  • Hurley allowed the soldiers to keep returning to the US Security Forces where they were positioned as killers for the US army, for which they were glorified as reward.
  • Hurley himself was rewarded with career moves: First Governor of NSW and then to the role as so called “Head of State”.

Like Archbishop Hollingsworth before them, men in positions of power overseeing abuse must be removed from roles of prominence. If you called for the fall of the patriarchs of the Catholic Church, you should also be calling for the fall of the patriarchs of the Australian Defence Force.

These men used the wars to promote themselves into positions of further abuse: Gen. Peter Leahy for example is on the board of a significant arms dealer. Gen. Mike Hindmarsh operates in the Middle East facilitating arms deals through his position as as Senior Officer in the UAE Presidential Guard [security forces].

Link the #ToxicSAS to US militarism and colonisation:  Because #BlackLivesMatter.  We know that dangerous policing has its roots in militarised culture. #Afghanistan and  #Iraq matter. #WarCrimesmatter.

Please reply to this email and contact us with your thoughts.

Yours sincerely,

Margie and the Wage Peace team

Publication info: Sunday Telegraph ; Surry Hills, N.S.W. [Surry Hills, N.S.W]31 May 2020: 5.

AUSTRALIAN special forces soldiers have been served with formal notices accusing them of committing war crimes while fighting in Afghanistan.

The extraordinary development comes four years after investigations began into rumours that special forces operators were involved in unlawful killings and cruelty while in Afghanistan.

In recent days, a number of soldiers have received notices from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, NSW Court of Appeal Judge Justice Paul Brereton.

Most are former soldiers although some are understood to be current members of the ADF.

The notices advise the soldiers he intends to make adverse findings against them, and gives them a period in which to justify or explain their actions.

Those adverse findings include breaches of the Law of Armed Conflict and other misconduct allegations.

The soldiers have several weeks to respond, then Justice Brereton’s final report will go to the Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, along with a series of recommendations.

This could include criminal prosecutions. Current members can be recommended for discharge from the army.

The report is due to be handed down in July and will ultimately go to the government.

“Further dissemination of the report or material within it will be a matter for the Chief of the Defence Force,” an IGADF spokesman said.

The Department of Defence has had to develop contingency plans to deal with the mental health fallout from such a finding against previously revered soldiers.

President of the Australian Commando Association and the RSL Greg Melick said the inquiry was not yet complete.

“The mere fact the notices have been served doesn’t imply guilt and it is inappropriate to speculate until the process is complete,’’ he said.

“The speculation has been very damaging to the health and welfare of not only many veterans but their families.’’ In a separate but parallel inquiry, the Australian Federal Police continue to investigate two allegations of war crimes allegedly involving two special forces soldiers.

One is known only as Soldier C, while the second is Australia’s most decorated war hero, Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith.

With regards to Soldier C, the AFP said: “The Australian Federal Police received a complaint from the Minister for Defence regarding footage aired on the ABC, concerning the actions of ADF members and the death of a man in Afghanistan.

“The AFP has commenced an investigation and will not comment further while it remains ongoing.” Mr Roberts-Smith strongly denies wrongdoing and is suing Nine for allegations it published against him. The case continues this week. Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyer Mark O’Brien was asked to confirm whether his client had received an adverse finding notice, and if so whether he would like to comment on it. He said: “I have no comment on any part of that question.’’

CREDIT: Ellen Whinnett; Exclusive

References

Veteran Suicides – Australia launches inquiry into military veteran suicides

At War with the Truth – The Washington Files


Thanks to Beyond War for the use of their database: you can unsubscribe below at any time.
If you are receiving from us for the first time – it might be because you’ve recently signed to #MakeWestPapuaSafe. We are collaborating on anti-militarism stuff. If you don’t want to receive emails from Wage Peace but definitely want from Make West Papua Safe, can you just reply to this email saying: “Hey -just MWPS”. <3 thx.
Wage Peace happens on Sovereign Aboriginal Land – mostly Sovereign Yidindji Sovereign Land – but also on the land of the Jagara, the Bunjalung and the Ngunnawal people. We acknowledge the Tribal Authority of the people on whose Land we live.
Those of us working on the project are around the country and we invite you to play/volunteer with us. or donate!

facebook @wagepeaceau Facebook  Twitter @wagepeaceau Twitter    Wage Peace favicon logo www.wagepeaceau.org

WAGE PEACE provides strategic messaging and digital campaign support
for campaigns & groups disturbing war & militarism in Australia.

We ‘organise’ and ‘mobilise’ to #EndWarCulture

#WAGEPEACE

An Evening with Clinton Fernandes

Clinton Fernandes with his books
Professor Clinton Fernandes, professor of international and political studies UNSW Canberra, former Australian Army Officer who served in the Australian Intelligence Corps…

September 16 2019, Canberra Food Coop, 5.30pm (soup) for 6:00pm start.

Competition with China is fast becoming an organising principle of U.S. economic, foreign and security policies. The new “digital iron curtain” that will separate the globe into U.S. and Chinese technological zones runs through Australia, which has banned Chinese telco giant Huawei from supplying equipment to Australia’s 5G network.

Meanwhile, the US military says it wants to spend more than a quarter of a billion dollars worth of naval facilities in the Top End.

Professor Clinton Fernandes will provide an analysis of these matters. He is the author of “Island off the Coast of Asia” and “What Uncle Sam Wants,” a former Defence Force intelligence officer, and an academic at UNSW Canberra.

Professor Fernandes has been a strong supporter of Witness K, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, and also The whistleblower David McBride in the Afghanistan case.

The talk will not focus on these cases because they are before the courts, however the relevant issues that will be discussed will be of interest to anyone following Australia’s role in joining war games with the US and concerned for the implications for Australia’s peaceful co-existence with its South-east Asian neighbours and the rest of the world.

September 16th, Canberra Food Coop.

Pay what you can – we’ll pass around a donation bucket to cover venue costs

Be there at 5:30pm for crusty bread and vegan soup ($8, cash only)

Talk 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Wage Peace Logo   IPAN logo

Presented by Wage Peace, IPAN and friends

Please RSVP here so that we have an idea of numbers

www.wagepeaceau.org (join our mailing list)

Wage Peace on Facebook

Wage Peace on Twitter

#Free McBride – Protect Whistleblowers – Jail war criminals

Graeme Dunstan painting the banner to support McBride
Graeme Dunstan with the banner #Free McBride – Protect Whistleblowers – Jail war criminals

Here the #FreeMcBride banner, painting completed, on my work table in the creative chaos of Havachat, Rockhampton.

Three days work, marking out, masking and painting. Design courtesy Somerset Bean and Cate Adams. Borders yet to be sewn on.

David McBride is presently facing prosecution in the ACT Supreme Court for leaking the Afghan Files.

The leaked files reveal war crimes committed by the Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. They were the cause of the raid by the Australian Federal Police on the ABC earlier this month.

David McBride faces jail. Vigorous and visible defence for him will not only protect him, but it will also assert the public’s right to know what Australian Special Forces have been doing in Afghanistan these past 17 years in our name.

Some public clamour will also influence how much of the Brereton Report – the outcome of the soon-to-be released, Inspector General ADF’s report into operations of Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan, we the public, will be allowed to see.

I reckon that 17 years in Afghanistan under the US Command and without any effective accountability to the Australian people and their Parliament was more than an exercise in vicious futility.

It also produced a toxic culture within the Special Forces of murder, torture, lies and cover ups. If not exposed and eliminated, this culture will pervade the ADF command for years to come.

Which is why I am supporting him with banner painting.

And it is why I am happy to paint banners for other McBride support groups.

From Graeme Dunstan, Master Banner Maker and Peace Bus captain.

Australian Arms – Out of control #AusArmsControl

Wage Peace Action Update December, 2019

Sign the petition

Watch and post this video

Send a letter direct to EOS

 


Australian anti-bases logo

#StopArmingSaudi July, 2019

Australian weapons sales are in the news again. ABC, July 25 2019.

We really should stop arming Saudi and UAE – both members of the US-Saudi Coalition bombing Yemen.

The story is complex. Communities beyond ABC-SBS audiences deserve to know what is happening.

Here’s our take:

I'm General Asiri

Saudi Arabia thanks australia

We hope you will download these pics and info, repost and write about the story – to help more people access the information.

We Want YOU to Retell the Story

Australia subsidises and facilitates weapons sales to the Saudi Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and to the UAE.

The Saudi MOI is like our own militarised Home Affairs. It includes special forces and the “Saudi CIA”.

The Saudis ‘promise’ those weapons are not used in Yemen. But there is no verification process: It’s just ‘asserted’ by defence bureaucrats (see Parliamentary record below).

There are no boundaries in modern militarisation. ‘Special’ security forces move between external military operations and domestic operations: “home affairs”.

  • The Saudis use knives against journalists in foreign countries. And Australia has done nothing. Khashoggi spoke out against War Crimes in Yemen.
  • Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Italy have banned weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
  • The UK Government suspended weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, when they were found to have failed to fully assess the risk of human rights violations.
  • Share this petition – widely – and sign if you have not already done so.
  • And retell the story in your own words and using our slides. It’s time to take it further.

Formation of Australian Arms Control Coalition

Wage Peace and IPAN have joined with Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children and other civil society groups in a new Australian Arms Control Coalition (AACC) #AusArmsControl to #StopArmingSaudi.

Members of the Coalition (AACC) are researching and questioning that the Government has no transparent processes for assessment. That the #ArmsTradeTreaty has no teeth and is systematically undermined for profit.

Where to from here? We’d love to hear your thinking.

EOS is an ASX listed company that sells to the Saudis. EOS has a factory filled with engineers and manufacturers in Canberra. Labor ex-Senator Kate Lundy is on the board. She pushes weapons development across the country for ACT Defence. Code word: “innovation“. 

We know the board member and major investor ‘Fred Bart’ is a former professional poker player involved in dodgy deals… Google him.

A lot of the workers of EOS are on LinkedIn. We know the shipments go from Sydney airport. We know which logistics company. 

The Defence Minister, a Brigadier was on the board of Raytheon, an arms company. Reynolds has made it into the inner echelons of state power. We don’t think she is a helpful target at this point.

We know that many institutions including the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne are taking money from Saudi Arabia for “scholarships” – including for the man who actually appeared to butcher Khashoggi.

We’d love your help to stop arming Saudi and UAE. What targets takes your fancy? We might call you soon to ask what you think.

Contact us and stay in touch. 0403214422

Yours sincerely,

Denis Doherty (ABCC) with Margaret Pestorius (Wage Peace)

Sign to say NO to Aussie arms sales

Join the vigil and challenge EOS

Every second Thursday at their Sydney office: 75 Elizabeth St, Sydney. 11am-12midday.

The other tenants really don’t like having an arms trader in the building!AntiBases EOS action


November 2019 – Australians take action

 

References

General Asiri (Wikipedia) 

Ministry of Interior (MOI) Blobapsecurity.org

The Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi (Wikipedia) 

Australia is facilitating and subsidising weapons deals in Saudi and UAE (Feb 2019) Dylan Welsh ABC

Marise Payne (July 2019) condemns murder of Khashoggi but does NOTHING to sanction Saudis 

Di Natale questions Defence officials in Senate Estimates October 2018 

Forensic Doctor trained in Australia apparently involved in Khashoggi murder

#StopArmingSaudi Petition

Christopher Pyne Spruiks Aussie Arms To Saudi Arabia
Christopher Pyne Spruiks Aussie Arms To Saudi Arabia As UN Warns Of Impending Yemen Famine  NEW MATILDA November 13, 2017
  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 11
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

info@wagepeaceau.org

tel: 0403214422

SIGN UP DONATE
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • About Us
  • Campaigns
  • Disrupt Land Forces
  • Resources

Copyright © 2026 Wage Peace