The Australian government’s new “Defence Legislation Amendment (Accelerating Capability and Protecting Bases) Bill 2026” is about to hand foreign militaries and corporations – in particular the US and Israel – special powers to ignore and override Australian law on Australian territory.
As Australian lawyer and policy analyst Rita Jabri Markwell has pointed out, the new bill will allow foreign arms companies and militaries to ride roughshod over the country’s laws and the rights of its people:
Foreign defence forces and weapons companies [are] to be given power to override Australian laws…putting the foot hard on the pedal to give freer rein to foreign military and defence ‘contractors’.
State and territory laws that could be switched off include cultural heritage, land rights, environmental legislation, laws relating to gun licensing, explosives, planning and building, workplace health and safety, dangerous goods, road transport laws, and state criminal offences. There is no exhaustive list.
‘Safer’
The Australian government says the legislation will:
enable defence, industry and trusted international partners to develop, test and introduce advanced capabilities more efficiently in Australia.
Supposedly this testing of ‘advanced’ weapons systems on Australian territory, overriding the wishes of locals and even their laws, will make Australians “safer”. Right. The bill contains no provisions to protect human rights or follow international law.
Impeding the exercise of powers granted under the bill, through protest or anything else, will be a crime. A government minister can unilaterally:
declare whole ‘defence areas’ over land, sea or airspace
with virtually no legal means to challenge the decision.
Australia’s slavish relationship with the US and Israel has long been denounced as against the interests of Australians and indeed the world. Australian national and state governments are busy handing yet more power to foreign powers and their lobbies – and waging war on the right of its people to oppose and protest against genocide. Now it wants to give away sovereignty – and Australians’ rights – over potentially huge swathes of its territory.
The bill closely mirrors the UK government’s fire sale of land, authority and rights in its so-called ‘freeports’ and ‘special economic zones‘ that give corporations impunity and sweeping powers over those unfortunate enough to be caught up in them.