Greens in push to send Darwin’s Marines packing after election

The Greens would seek to give Darwin’s US Marines their marching orders, if the party gains the balance of power.

THE head of one of Australia’s most influential defence think-tanks has labelled the Greens’ defence policy “insane”.

The left-wing party released its policy earlier this week ahead of the looming federal election, which would see US Marines given their marching orders from the Top End in a bid to turn the nation into the “Switzerland of the Pacific”.

The Greens’ candidate for Lingiari, Blair McFarland, said this could also include demilitarising Pine Gap.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings told The Australian on Tuesday morning the policy would “effectively turn Australia into a non-aligned neutral (state) with a defence budget about the level of New Zealand’s”.

“And that would make us ripe for the picking in terms of China’s attempts to dominate the region and our island neighbours,” Mr Jennings said.

“It’s crazy stuff but also dangerous in the sense that if the Greens were controlling the balance of power in parliament somewhat, they would have to be educated about this issue.”

Greens in push to send Darwin’s Marines packing after election

THE Greens would seek to give Darwin’s contingent of US Marines its marching orders in a bid to become “the Switzerland of the Pacific”, if the party gains the balance of power at the federal election.

But Lingiari candidate, Blair McFarland, said the Pine Gap facility outside Alice Springs could stay, under a renegotiated, demilitarised agreement with the US government.

Mr McFarland said sending the Marines packing could help reset Australia’s relationship with China, in line with the party’s policy of de-escalating tensions with the Asian superpower, including by staying out of any conflict over Taiwan.

“We shouldn’t be engaging in, sort of, militaristic posturing, even if it is good for election prospects, we should be engaged in a process that moves us into the future, so we can be safe and engaged and we can have good relations with China, like we basically did until there was a political reason to start shaping up to China,” he said.

“There’s a moral imperative we do not leave Australia open to attack from superpowers by getting involved in wars. It’s not a battle we can win … If we don’t create a target, why would China attack us? We’re supplying them with lots of useful stuff.”

US Marines depart Nackaroo Airfield aboard an MV-22 Osprey following exercise Loobye. Picture: Glenn Campbell

But Mr McFarland said Pine Gap would still have a valuable contribution to make to the Territory under the Greens’ policy, with a pivot away from any military capacity.

“The Marines are a very military type unit, they’re warriors up there, Pine Gap here, it’s technicians,” he said.

“The Gappies down here have been here since ‘67 and they’re very much part of the community, we think that we should really just renegotiate our relationship with America, and all foreign powers.

“Part of that could be Pine Gap no longer doing military stuff because it’s got a lot of technology and it’s got a lot of technicians out there, they could be making a real contribution to telecommunications in this hemisphere with the equipment they’ve got and the skills they’ve got.”

Labor Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, said the ALP was committed to Australia’s military alliance with the US.

“Federal Labor initiated the US Marines rotation (MRF-D) and is committed to Pine Gap, the alliance, and our regional security partners,” he said.

Originally published as Greens in push to send Darwin’s Marines packing after election