“A US Military Outpost”: WA Greens MLC Sophie McNeill on Land Forces and AUKUS

Recent months have seen Western Australian Greens MLC Sophie McNeill persistently raising ire in WA parliament over the Cook Labor government not only moving to host the Land Forces 2026 weapons festival, but further, to rollout a tailormade security regime to conceal these arms dealers from the public, whilst the state’s also getting ready to host its very own US nuclear submarine base.

The Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition is taking place on Noongar land at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre over 6 to 8 October 2026. The largest weapons spruiking expo of its kind held in this country is being staged in Boorloo-Perth for the first time, as the biannual event was run out of Magan-djin-Brisbane by antiwar activists in 2022 and Naarm-Melbourne in 2024.

This year Land Forces has the rather inglorious distinction of being held on the third anniversary of the beginning of the Gaza genocide. And due to the sort of rage that the mass murder of an innocent people inspires, the Cook Labor government passed the Land Forces (Special Powers) Act 2026 (WA) to keep protesters at bay by blocking them from the expo site and beefing up policing powers.

But despite the overbearing tactics of WA Labor to heighten protections for warmongers attempting to sell killing machines that these days are used to target babies and hospitals, the WA Anti-War Collective is holding the Protest Land Forces 2026 rally on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, along with Stop AUKUS WA, IPAN (Independent and Peaceful Australia Network) and Friends of Palestine WA.

As McNeill points out the appearance of Land Forces in Boorloo serves to heighten rising militarism in the Perth region, as the AUKUS-related overhaul of HMAS Stirling and the construction of the Henderson Defence Precinct, a major naval shipbuilding hub, are continuing at apace in readiness for the hosting of Submarine Rotational Force – West, which gets underway in 2027.

SRF – West will comprise of a joint US-UK nuclear-propelled submarine presence at HMAS Stirling. The US government has renamed it ‘Naval Support Activity (NSA) Stirling’, even though it will be basically functioning as a permanent US nuclear submarine base down under. And due to the US policy of ‘warhead ambiguity’, our government won’t know if the subs are carrying nuclear missiles.

Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to WA MLC Sophie McNeill about her party’s misgivings regarding the roll out of the legislative package to conceal arms dealers from grassroots civilians, the fact that Israeli companies will be spruiking their genocidal wares and how rising militarism is right now sweeping all levels of Western Australian society.

Land Forces 2026 is set to take place at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre over three days next week. This is the first time the biannual international weapons expo will be held on Noongar land in the city of Perth.

Sophie, WA Anti-War Collective organisers have told me that you have been particularly outspoken in parliament in respect of the notorious Land Forces exposition coming to your town.

So, can you outline what your misgivings are in respect of Land Forces being held in Boorloo-Perth over 8 to 10 October 2026?

These warmongers are just not welcome in Boorloo. We have seen a disgraceful response from our state Labor government, where they are basically selling out Western Australia as a US military outpost.

AUKUS is going to be huge for our state and WA Labor has just rolled out a red carpet. They don’t question anything that the federal government does, and we are about to have this massive change in how our state operates.

Land Forces is just part of the big plan of defence becoming the second largest sector in Western Australia. WA Labor says this openly now: after the resources industry, they want the defence industry to be the leading industry in our state.

This is not the future we want for our kids. We want to be a renewable energy superpower, not an outpost of the US Department of War.

So, we are going to have all the warmongers here next week in Boorloo, and unfortunately, many of them are looking to set up shop permanently in WA under AUKUS.

This is the first step in what is a really disastrous plan for Western Australia.

Another matter that you have been persistently challenging in the WA upper house is the multimillion-dollar security response to Land Forces.

This involves a legislative regime that passed parliament on 10 September in the form of the Land Forces Event (Special Powers) Bill 2026. Passing an entire legislative regime to respond to one event sounds excessive.

So, what are the issues around the passing of this bill? And are there concerns that the extra policing powers may result in similar overbearing policing of public protest that was involved in the Victoria police response to Land Forces 2024 in Naarm-Melbourne?

We are deeply opposed to the legislation and the urgent priorities that we have in our state parliament at the moment.

The housing crisis is worse in WA than anywhere else in the country. Rents have gone up 60 percent. People are sleeping in their cars.

Then we’re also on the frontline of the climate emergency. Western Australia is the only state without a climate bill.

We are the only state without a renewable energy target, without a reducing emissions target and yet, our state Labor government is passing legislation to protect these warmongers from seeing protesters, when they hold this arms fair next week.

It is so disproportionate. It involves such overreach. And the worst thing about it is that it is also going to heavily restrict protesters rights, as well as the implied right to political communication in the Australian Constitution. These rights are being overruled by this legislation.

We have received expert advice from the Human Rights Law Centre, who said that the legislation is unconstitutional.

What the laws will do is that they impose hefty fines and gaol sentences on people who enter the new designated area, which is massive in size.

The Perth Convention Centre where Land Forces is taking place is right next to a massive bus depot. It is also right next to the Elizabeth Quay train station, which is one of the busiest train stations in the state.

The whole area is covered under this legislation, as a designated area where they don’t want any protests happening.

So, it’s a huge overreach. We are really concerned that police fought to get these special powers, and we are worried that they’re going to be amped up to use them.

We have a really peaceful protest movement in Perth. We don’t think there is any need for these laws. Obviously, we want peaceful protests. We don’t want to see any injuries.

But the laws we already have in Western Australia are enough to keep people safe – to keep the community safe. This bill wasn’t necessary.

It is just little things like you can get a $6,000 fine if you bring a speaker into the designated area. It is the same for microphones.

So, this is specifically aimed at people’s rights to protest, and it’s outrageous that the Labor government is doing this in WA.

Another aspect to Land Forces is that this weapons festival is being held over the third anniversary of the beginning of the Israeli perpetrated genocide in Gaza. So, do you have anything to add in that regard? 

We have these Israeli companies coming here that have been banned from showcasing their wares in other jurisdictions. These are companies like Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Systems and Israel Aerospace.

But in Western Australia, we are rolling out the red carpet for these Israeli companies. We have even passed legislation, so these Israeli companies don’t see any protesters.

Other countries, however, have banned these companies from showcasing their wares. Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Systems are both indicated in the murder of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom.

Elbit produced the drones that killed Zomi and Rafael designed the missile that killed that brave, amazing woman.

So, these war criminals are going to be welcome in Western Australia. But people who want to protest that are not?

Protesters are going to be subjected to charges and fines if they decide to go into the designated area and break these absolutely archaic and outrageous laws that target peaceful protests.

So, this is where we are at. We have a Labor government protecting war criminals, like these Israeli weapons companies, and yet, they are criminalising peaceful antiwar protesters.

Land Forces was moved on from being hosted in Melbourne because of the clashes that transpired between protesters and Victoria police during the 2024 conference.

However, the staging of Land Forces in your city seems quite fitting, as around 50 kilometres south of Perth is HMAS Stirling, where construction is proceeding around the hosting of Submarine Rotational Force – West, which is an AUKUS-related joint US-UK nuclear-propelled submarine presence that is going to get underway in the region next year.

So, how do the WA Greens consider the imposition of SRF-West? What sort of impacts will it likely have?

It is going to drastically change our way of life in the southern suburbs of Perth. We are going to have the second largest military presence after Darwin, with these plans under AUKUS. We are going to have 2,700 US servicemen and their families here.

We are already seeing a massive housing crisis in that part of our city. People have been sleeping in their cars. Just down the road from HMAS Stirling, there was a camp on a road called Memorial Drive, where pensioners were just turfed out by the state government last week.

So, they have been forcibly removed, and meanwhile, we have Australian taxpayers’ money being used to build houses for US servicemen. You just can’t make this stuff up. It is so egregious.

We have quite a little peaceful part of the world down in southwestern WA. And look at what has just happened in the Middle East. It is not alarmist to say that when you host US military facilities in your city that they become targets.

Every time we bring it up in parliament, Labor says that we are being alarmist and fearmongering. But look at what is happening right now across the Middle East, thanks to Trump’s war in Iran.

We have seen all of the US military installations hit, because under military law, military installations are a legitimate target.

So, when you are going to place them in the middle of our communities, it’s trouble. These sites are just a couple of kilometres from people’s homes.

We are going to have onshore in Henderson, what will be just the fifth deep cycle maintenance facility for US military in the world. The other four are in the US.

The fifth Deep Cycle and Modification facility is just 15 kilometres from Fremantle town centre. It is just 11 minutes from my front door.

To argue that this doesn’t increase the threat to our community, and make us a target, is just nonsensical. And this is the problem: we have just seen state Labor roll over and do everything the Defence Department and the US Department of War want.

Meanwhile, the people of Western Australia have just been cast aside. The people of WA are just getting in the way of their plans for war with China – that is what is going on right now.

They are also recruiting our children. They are in our high schools. They have started new programs called defence studies in over forty high schools, where they are actively trying to recruit our kids to go and work in defence industries.

This is the thing; I have teenage sons. I don’t want them to be dragged into the next genocide or the next illegal US military aggression. But under Labor, this is the plans they have for us, as part of AUKUS.

So, the militarisation of our society starts in our schools. It makes us a target. In no way shape or form is it good for Western Australia.

And lastly, the AUKUS pact was first announced in September 2021. In terms of the fabled eight Australian owned nuclear-propelled submarines, it doesn’t appear to have progressed very far. But in terms of SRF-West, this is almost upon us.

Sophie, you’re calling for the nation to pull out of the AUKUS agreement. But with the ever-increasing inroads of the US military on this continent, is this still a possibility? And if Australia tells the US that it is going to pull out of AUKUS, would it permit our nation to do that?

At the moment, there is so much we can do to curtail these plans. Henderson is the one that we are particularly worried about, because that is bringing the US nuclear submarines onshore to undergo this deep cycle maintenance. It is just a couple of kilometres from people’s homes.

Like I said, this sort of technology doesn’t exist outside of the US. This is a huge shift for our community, and it is changing everything from our state government priorities to federal funding decisions. It is a massive imposition on our lives.

We think the community hasn’t actually realised what is going on. We don’t think they realise the extent of how AUKUS will impact upon us in Western Australia.

This is due to federal and state Labor having been drip-feeding this information because they don’t want the community to wake up to what is going on until it is too late.

They don’t want the community to realise until there is a US nuclear submarine base just 14 minutes’ drive from the heart of Freemantle, and by then, it will be too late.

We have a big job ahead of us. We have a very conservative media in Western Australia. So, it is hard to get the message out.

But we are working our butts off to get people to realise the extent of the impact that AUKUS will have upon them.

Every time we talk to the community about it, there is so much opposition and there is so much distrust of the government.

People are worried that there are no plans to store nuclear waste and there has been no consultation with Traditional Owners.

Every way you look at it, this is a disaster for the environment. So, we are doing our best to make sure people try and wake up to what is going on.

But this is really hard when you are up against both the major parties doing whatever the US military and the US Department of War want. We have a huge challenge ahead of us.

We need to get people to wake up to this, because we are just becoming a US military outpost.

We are going to lose all of our sovereignty. Our children are being targeted for recruitment, and our most beautiful places are being handed over for the building of US military facilities.

It’s not the future we want or need or what is best for Western Australia or for the entire country.

Main image of Sophie McNeill supplied. Land Forces image from WA Anti-War Collective