Beatrice Tucker

The Labor Government is investing $368bn on eight nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS alliance with $127m spent on defence-oriented university programs this year. Australian primary and high school educational pathways are also being altered to support AUKUS.

Anti-AUKUS Caucus alerts us to an alarming shift toward militarising education and ANU’s involvement in supporting the drive to war. The work is regularly utilised in campus collective action. Political art should not exist in the gallery alone; art can only be part of making change when created to bolster real campaigns happening on the ground.

The growing impacts of the neoliberal university model sees students treated as commodities who are developed and sold to industry. ANU and the Group of Eight Universities are unashamedly vying for a slice of the AUKUS funding pie while not consulting students. This work participates in the growing active resistance by students and staff.