As global tensions rise and conflict escalates, Australia is being drawn deeper into US military strategy through AUKUS and broader military integration. That means more risk, more secrecy, and a greater chance that nuclear-capable bombers, warships and submarines could operate from, through, or alongside Australian territory.

The United States refuses to confirm or deny whether its vessels and aircraft carry nuclear weapons. Australia accepts that policy. Australians may never know if nuclear weapons are being brought into our country.

This is unacceptable.

If nuclear weapons are brought into Australia, ordinary people would carry the risk while decisions are made behind closed doors. And if Australia is seen as part of a US nuclear war machine, that makes us a target too.

So, we got a 2-week reprieve from the war (I’m not so sure this will be honoured) but we seem to be inching ever closer to nukes being detonated. We must not let our country become a target or be part of the war machine that could detonate nukes on any civilian population.

The US has a “neither confirm nor deny” policy on whether visiting submarines, ships, or planes carry nuclear weapons. In late 2025, Senate estimates heard there was “no impediment” to visits by dual-capable platforms and that Australia would continue to respect that US policy. That means Australians may never know whether nuclear weapons are being brought here.

Labor first committed to signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2018, reaffirmed that commitment in 2021 and 2023, but Australia still has not signed. Recent US and Israeli attacks on Iran, condemned by UN experts as unlawful and in violation of the UN Charter, show how quickly conflict can escalate and how easily closely aligned states can be exposed to the consequences without democratic say.