Trades Hall Basement, 54 Victoria St, Carlton 
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Open 12pm-5pm Friday - Saturday 
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Current Australian defence policy is based on relying on the protection of a big power, the USA. This close relationship has drawn Australia into disastrous wars including Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. IPAN holds that Australia can indeed defend itself without foreign assistance and that our ADF should be confined to this specific task and not join in expeditionary wars with the USA.

This webinar discusses the political adjustments involving alliances which need to be made for the implementation of a truly independent foreign policy for Australia with a self-reliant, self-defence force concentrating on territorial defence and without foreign power dependence.

                             Facilitator: Matilda Byrne
Matilda Byrne is an emerging research and advocacy professional with a focus on humanitarian approaches to foreign and defence policy, conflict and security issues. She is currently doing her PhD at the Social Global Studies Centre at RMIT University on R2P and inter-governmental response to atrocity crimes.  She is also the Stop Killer Robots Australian National Coordinator based at SafeGround, an NGO focused on reducing impacts of legacy and emerging weapons. Since joining SafeGround in 2015, she has held various roles and developed her particular interest in disarmament. Her main publication 'Australia Out of the Loop: why we must not delegate decision making in warfare from human to machines', examines autonomous weapons in the Australian context. 
 
Dr Emma Shortis is a historian who focuses on US and environmental politics. Her first book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, was published by Hardie Grant Books in 2021. Emma is an in-demand media expert who uses history to try to interpret and explain what on earth is happening in the United States today. She’s a regular guest on ABC News radio and television, and programs like Triple RRR’s Common Sense. Emma joined RMIT University in June 2018. In the year before that, she was a Fox-Zucker International Fellow at Yale University.

Dr Alison Broinowski AM: President, Australians for War Powers Reform. Formerly an Australian diplomat, Alison lived and worked in Japan, Burma, Iran, the Philippines, South Korea, Jordan, Mexico and at the UN in New York. She is a Japanese and French speaker and is the author or editor of 14 books about Australia’s dealings with the world, Asian countries in particular. Best known are The Yellow Lady: Australian Impressions of Asia (1991), About Face: Asian Accounts of Australia (2003), Howard's War (2003), and Allied and Addicted (2007). Her PhD is in Asian Studies at ANU. She has researched and taught there, at Macquarie University, and at the University of Wollongong. She has for long been a member of the Australian Republican Movement and of Australians for War Powers Reform, of which she is now President. She is a Board member of WorldBEYONDWar, based in the US.

Bevan Ramsden is an ex-telecommunications engineer, ex-TAFE teacher and long-time peace activist and advocate for Australia’s independence. As a one-time member of the coordinating committee of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, he assists the committee in its work, producing its monthly e-publication, Voice. He was a founding member of Melbourne’s independent community radio station, 3CR and regularly produces programs broadcast by that station. His articles have been published by Pearls and Irritations, Independent Australia, Green Left Weekly and The Australian Socialist. 

Register HERE to attend

International Peace Bureau Webinar