The United States has been forced to withdraw its bases from Puerto Rico, Japan and the Philippines, where they have created a toxic nightmare that will cost billions to clean up and take a conservative 300 years to complete. But the Americans have skipped town and there is no legal obligation on them to repair the areas they have destroyed.

The facts of high rates of cancer and serious illness wherever American bases have been set up has made a number of Australians ask how this deal will ultimately benefit their country.

The agreement waives Environmental Impact Studies and carries immunity from our criminal laws.
What weapons will the US be testing here? What will be the long-term consequences for our people and for the environment in giving the Americans virtually carte blanche to intrude on our most pristine environments?

Already under the agreement, the US government has the green light to begin shelling military training grounds at Shoalwater Bay in Queensland, in the Northern Territory and at Lancelin in Western Australia.

In June of this year, 11,000 US soldiers sailed into Shoalwater Bay in their nuclear warships to join 6,000 Aussie troops in Queensland for military exercises known as "Talisman Sabre 2005". They stormed our beaches for three weeks and pounded our coastline and offshore islands with live aerial bombing and ship-to- shore shelling. No journalists were 'embedded' during those exercises, so they could not see what was used or how our most pristine environments were blasted by US warships and aircraft.

Two weeks after signing the agreement last year the Minister for Defence, Senator Hill and the Minister for the Environment, Senator Ian Campbell, came to an understanding, now formalised, that an EIS - an Environmental Impact Study - no longer has to be conducted inside a military training area, either before or after training exercises.

A basic environmental safeguard for the Australian people - that their most pristine environments have not or will not be contaminated by the Americans testing their latest weaponry - has been terminated under the guise of being in the 'national interest'.

Shoalwater Bay near Rockhampton on the Queensland coast is a jewel in the environmental crown of Australia. With its mountains and mangroves, its sweeping beaches and bays, its ancient sand dunes it is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. It's a huge area of biodiversity. 56 % of Australia's bird species are found here. Whales, dolphins, dugongs, sea turtles and countless species of fish swim in its waters which border or include the Great Barrier Reef.

Shoalwater Bay has been home to Australia's defence forces since the Vietnam War. It has been used as a training ground for military exercises and the Army has done a reasonably good job in the past of protecting most of the untouched areas. Under this new arrangement with the US, we will allow them to come in here and test their latest laser guided weapons (the so-called smart bombs).

The locals in the nearby town of Yeppoon (where the American military will R&R) are split between those who think that the influx of Americans will lead to more jobs and economic prosperity for the townsfolk and those who don't want them there, no matter what.

"If we have a large American contingent housed in Shoalwater Bay, it's going to grow. The big question is, does this community want that? The inevitable nightclubs and bars and what surrounds large numbers of troops. I don't know anybody who came here for that sort of lifestyle."

"The Americans aren't going to ruin a perfectly good US training area by using radioactive equipment. They want to turn somebody else’s into radioactive mud."

"If people knew the US used depleted uranium here, it would decimate the tourist industry. People wouldn't want to come here. It would be like saying, we'll build a tourist destination at Chernobyl." (Paul Hoolighan, State Member, Queensland Parliament)