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Defence minister Richard Marles has been zipping around the world, promising even more public funds for weapons’ procurement and development for wars being concocted by the Donald Trump administration.

It’s not entirely clear what Marles’ most recent visit to Washington was about, other than another kowtow to the “” between Australia and the United States.

However, about his September visit to Japan.

He gushed that are “steadfast” in their “commitment to working with the United States” and announced a contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build Mogami-class frigates — a “larger and more lethal surface combatant fleet” to replace Anzac-class frigates. The first of these new weapons, equipped for undersea warfare and air attacks, is expected in 2029.

As the controversial AUKUS military pact moves into its third year, Australia, as the US’ deputy sheriff in the Asia Pacific, is drawing Japan into the military alliance.

More than 1500 Japanese troops took part in the Talisman Sabre military exercises this year and Japan has committed to more joint military exercises and to conduct an inaugural regional air and missile defence live-fire event at Talisman Sabre 2027.

AUKUS is squarely aimed at China, which is Australia’s biggest trading partner. At the same time, that Labor is allocating tens of billions of public funding to defence to “secure” maritime trade routes — .

Not to be outdone, the now former shadow defence minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told Sky News on September 1 that Japanese troops should be stationed in Darwin. She’s convinced that Labor is downplaying AUKUS and the government needs to lift its spending on defence, acceding to demands.

Australia has already doled out at least $1.6 billion on down payments to US shipyards under the AUKUS deal. This is despite  and less than half saying it will make us safer.

AUKUS makes Labor’s commitment to boosting defence spending to 2.33% of GDP by 2033 inevitable.

Marles has fully embraced former Coalition defence minister, now weapons industry lobbyist, Christopher Pyne’s 2018 blueprint for Australia to become one of the top 10 weapons manufacturers. Pyne established a $3.8 billion loan scheme for defence companies seeking financial assistance to sell weapons and equipment overseas.

In 2012–16, Australia was the world’s 20th largest arms exporter. By 2020–24, it had crept to 17th place, just ahead of Iran.

Labor’s commitment to this lethal export industry makes it complicit in the manufacture of specialised parts, or materiel, for sophisticated death machines, such as the F-35 fighter jets being used to wipe out Palestinians in Gaza.

The complicated supply chain for these death machines does not excuse Australia. Until metal shops, such as , which supplies armour plate steel for weapons being used by the illegal Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank and SEC Plating, which manufactures engineering coatings and finishes for F-35 fighter jets, refuse to aid and abet genocide, they will be the target of anti-genocide protests.

The lack of transparency around where the killing machines, technology and expertise officially — and unofficially — should worry us all. Labor’smove to  makes the task of finding out even harder.

Labor has projected the defence budget to grow by 30% over the next four years, reaching $22.5 billion by 2028–29. Marles’ latest weapons announcement about , an autonomous undersea vehicle, comes with a price tag of $1.7 billion. It is being developed with US weapons’ manufacturer Anduril Industries, which focuses on military-use autonomous drones and sensors.

There is never any public consultation on where such enormous sums of our money are allocated, because if that happened, most of us would demand affordable housing and public infrastructure and services.

On top of all the new killing machines, the AUKUS military pact rests on the fundamental principle that Australia becomes subservient to the US foreign policy agenda — shown up by Labor’s refusal to implement sanctions on Israel or stop the two-way arms trade.

AUKUS makes it more, not less, likely for Australia to be involved in a US war on China. But that’s not because governments have had no say. It’s because Labor has chosen to be the US’ deputy sheriff in the Asia-Pacific, a choice most of us reject.

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