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AUKUS Submarine Regulations: Friends of the Earth Adelaide submission

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > Publications > Adelaide FoE Notes > AUKUS Submarine Regulations: FoE Adelaide submission

Philip White July 24, 2025, https://adelaidefoe.org/aukus-submarine-regulations-foe-adelaide-submission/

Friends of the Earth Adelaide today (24 July 2025) sent a submission in response to the government’s call for public comments on draft Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Regulations. These Regulations were drafted under the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act, which was passed in October last year. Our submission can be accessed here.

The consultation is open until 30 July 2025. Details can be found on the following web site: https://www.defence.gov.au/about/reviews-inquiries/australian-naval-nuclear-power-safety-regulations-public-consultation

FoE Adelaide’s submission can be summarised as follows:

— AUKUS should be cancelled. It compromises Australia’s sovereignty and is not in our strategic, economic, or environmental interests.

— If it is not cancelled, there should be a proper consultation about the Stirling and Osborne designated zones, which were declared in the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act without consultation.

— The principles of “free, prior and informed consent” should be followed in siting any site for storage and disposal of radioactive waste.

— That includes respecting laws of State and Territory governments that restrict or prohibit siting of nuclear waste facilities.

— The Regulator must be completely independent of the Defence portfolio. In the current proposal it will be answerable to the Minister for Defence.

— All submissions should be published in full, unless the submitter specifically requests otherwise. Government representatives informed us on 17 July at a public forum in Port Adelaide that they only intend to publish a summary put together by bureaucrats.

July 26, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war