\u201cBy 2030, we expect 2,300 Americans, to include sailors, \u00adcivilian employees, contractors and their family members, to be in Western Australia supporting the mission,\u201d US Navy spokesperson Joseph Keiley told the paper.<\/p>\n
Australian Submarine Agency chief Jonathan Mead had said in September last year that up to 1,200<\/a> US and UK personnel would be posted to Perth to support what\u2019s known as Submarine Rotational Force-West.<\/p>\n According to The Australian, the US Navy has established a base in recent months that it calls Naval Support Activity Stirling, \u201cto provide services to deployed personnel, contractors and their family members, adopting the same terminology it uses to describe some of its most important foreign bases\u201d.<\/p>\n As defence correspondent Ben Packham wrote in an accompanying analysis piece<\/a>: \u201cIf you listen to the Labor Party, the ongoing presence of four operational US submarines and 2,300 Americans in Western Australia does not in any way constitute a US base. It is, the government says, a \u2018rotational\u2019 arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n A US think tank analyst told the paper that in US parlance, a naval support activity was \u201ca shore facility with the full characteristics of a military base\u201d.<\/p>\n As The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> and others have reported, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy appeared last week to put an end date to Submarine Rotational Force-West, saying the US presence would \u201ccome to an end\u201d when Australia receives its own Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines, due in 2032.<\/p>\n However, a day later, Conroy walked the comment back, saying he expected the US to \u201chave an ongoing submarine presence in HMAS Stirling\u201d.<\/p>\n TRUMP\u2019S BOARD OF PEACE MAKES MOVE IN GAZA<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s Board of Peace has issued a construction contract to build a 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops in Gaza, The Guardian <\/a>revealed overnight.<\/p>\n \u201cThe contract, which has not yet been finalised, was awarded to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based firm that has previously carried out work with the US government in countries such as Iraq,\u201d the outlet reported.<\/p>\n The Board of Peace was created by the US president, who could act as chairman for life,<\/a> in order to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza after the devastating Israeli war there. At least 80% of Gaza\u2019s buildings were destroyed or damaged in the war. As The New York Times<\/a> reported, \u201cTrump has moved to broadly expand the scope of the Board of Peace to include other diplomatic efforts led by the Trump administration in what appeared to be an effort to build an alternative to the United Nations that places him in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n The contract with Arkel International was the first issued by the board.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Associated Press<\/a> reported that Israeli prosecutors have charged a settler over the killing of a Palestinian activist last year in the occupied West Bank, the first time since October 7, 2023 that an Israeli has been indicted for killing a Palestinian there.<\/p>\n The charges relate to the death of Awdah Hathaleen, a \u201cprominent community leader who advocated against settler violence in the southern West Bank\u201d and who was involved in the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, the BBC<\/a> reported that at least 13 people, including several children, had been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since a supposed ceasefire began last October to more than 1,100.<\/p>\n Israel has said<\/a> its troops won\u2019t withdraw from their positions in Gaza until Hamas is disarmed, while the group, listed as a terror organisation by Australia and many other countries, has said it won\u2019t lay down its arms until \u201call forms of aggression\u201d by Israel have ended.<\/p>\n Trump has claimed in recent days that the Board of Peace has made a deal for the \u201ccomplete disarmament\u201d<\/a> of Hamas. But Israel has expressed \u201cserious security concerns\u201d about the plan.<\/p>\n ON A LIGHTER NOTE\u2026<\/p>\n A female pygmy hippo was born at the Toronto Zoo last weekend. The calf was born to 20-year-old mother Kindia, zoo officials said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe calf took her first steps within minutes of her birth and was confidently navigating her enclosure within a few hours,\u201d Canadian public broadcaster CBC<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Pictures show the tiny, shiny animal in a bed of straw, but that\u2019s as close as onlookers will get for now: the public will not get an in-person look at the calf until she has bonded with her mother<\/a>.<\/p>\n \tSAY WHAT\u2026?<\/p>\n Fuck, my job is boring.<\/p>\n Mark Parton<\/p>\n The Liberal opposition leader of the Australian Capital Territory admitted sending a text message about being bored with budget estimates while at a parliamentary hearing last Friday, but denied the recipient was a sex worker, The Canberra Times<\/a>\u00a0reported on Thursday, a day after it first broke the story of Parton\u2019s multitasking.<\/p>\n CRIKEY RECAP\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tThe US is the biggest beneficiary from $140bn in Australian Defence contracts<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t American corporations and the US government have been the biggest beneficiaries of Australia\u2019s major defence spending since 2022, collecting one in three taxpayer dollars spent on major contracts, Defence Department information shows.<\/p>\n Crikey has analysed more than 2,000 Defence contracts worth more than $5 million each since the start of the 2022-23 financial year, as listed on the government website AusTender. Together, they total just over $140 billion in contracts paid out to corporations, other governments, Commonwealth agencies, agencies within Defence itself, banks, government business enterprises and state government bodies.<\/p>\n That total $140 billion figure doesn\u2019t cover all Defence spending in that period. The number of Defence contracts worth less than $5 million each runs into the many tens of thousands, though their total spend is significantly less than the larger contracts examined by Crikey. Smaller contracts skew more toward day-to-day Defence management, while larger contracts reflect major materiel procurement, sustainment contracts and services agreements.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\tTen years later, anti-corruption report solves the Dan Andrews mysteries of 2016<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s been 10 years since the events of 2016 that led Victoria\u2019s anti-corruption agency IBAC to start looking into the Andrews government\u2019s deal with the firefighters\u2019 union.<\/p>\n The long-awaited release of IBAC\u2019s \u201cOperation Richmond\u201d report yesterday\u00a0revealed how \u201cthe premier, ministers, senior government MPs and top bureaucrats ran secret backroom operations, misled cabinet, purged public boards and capitulated \u2014 over and over again \u2014 to relentless pressure from the long-serving head of the firefighters\u2019 union,\u201d in the words of\u00a0The Age. The report also delivered belated answers to questions journalists were scratching their heads over a decade ago.<\/p>\n Back on June 6, 2016, an article in\u00a0The Age\u00a0declared \u201cit remains unexplained why [Daniel Andrews] joined the bogged-down negotiations\u201d on a Country Fire Authority (CFA) enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA). The story noted that the premier had backed his emergency services minister Jane Garrett up until a meeting Andrews had with United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\tIn the upside down with Alan Joyce<\/a><\/p>\n It may shock readers of Crikey \u2014 or, actually, most publications in Australia \u2014 but the audience questions that concluded Alan Joyce\u2019s interview with ABC\u2019s Raf Epstein on Tuesday were uniformly positive.<\/p>\n It helped answer one of the main questions I had when entering The Wheeler Centre that evening: what kind of person would brave the miserable weather to attend the former Qantas head\u2019s attempted redemption tour as he promotes his book Riding the Jet Stream?<\/p>\n Apart from the mature, visibly upper-middle-class crew always at events of this sort, the crowd was surprisingly young and multicultural (and some, apparently, aviation students), as well as quite formally dressed for a literary event.<\/p>\n READ ALL ABOUT IT<\/p>\n Robodebt fears as Labor fires up welfare tech<\/a> (The Australian) ($)<\/p>\n ACT Opposition Leader Mark Parton admits to texting \u2018f*** my job is boring\u2019 during estimates hearing<\/a> (ABC News)<\/p>\n \u2018$100k for preselection\u2019: Nassif offered money to one of the Perrottet brothers<\/a> (SMH) ($)<\/p>\n Sons of jailed Pakistani leader Imran Khan fear for his health<\/a> (CNN)<\/p>\n Empty five-star room: Hanson paid for $900-a-night hotel with party funds<\/a> (SMH) ($)<\/p>\n Coles lands Accenture deal to send hundreds of office jobs to India<\/a> (AFR) ($)<\/p>\n Labor faces growing internal pressure to strengthen gambling reforms<\/a> (ABC News)<\/p>\n Ukraine hits two oil refineries deep in Russian territory<\/a> (BBC)<\/p>\n Faced with a teleprompter glitch, Canada\u2019s Carney mocks Trump<\/a> (Reuters)<\/p>\n THE COMMENTARIAT<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HPCO8YKXwAAhyf0.jpeg\")
The baby pygmy hippo is bonding with her mother (Image: The Toronto Zoo via X)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Defence_1680x945.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\tDefence Minister Richard Marles, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump (Image: Crikey)<\/p>\n