IPAN event runs from 24th to 26th July 2026
Hundreds of Australians will travel to Adelaide for the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network conference from 24th to 26th July 2026.
IPAN will stage the three-day gathering under the banner “Time to Break Free from the USA”. The event will run at the same time as the Australian Labor Party Conference.
Nurses, teachers, veterans, unionists, health professionals, First Nations leaders, scientists, artists and community campaigners are expected from across the country.
The conference formally opens with a public meeting on the evening of Friday 24th July. US journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin will headline that session.
Across the weekend, attendees will work on what organisers describe as a shared task: charting an independent and peaceful course for Australia and building a national movement behind it.
Cameron Leckie, Shoebridge and Shortis listed
The speaker list includes Major (Ret) Cameron Leckie, a former Australian Army officer, who will address AUKUS and the Force Posture Agreement.
Sue Haseldine, a Kokatha elder from Ceduna, will speak as an advocate for environmental protection. Australian Greens senator David Shoebridge is also listed in his foreign affairs and defence role.
Other speakers include Emma Shortis, author of “Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the US”, Richard Tanter of the Nautilus Institute, and investigative journalist Peter Cronau, a co-founder of Declassified Australia.
According to IPAN chairperson Annette Brownlie, the range of people attending shows concern about Australia’s direction now reaches widely, including among young people.
IPAN has also secured funding to bring two younger activists to Adelaide. Ethan Floyd will speak about his firsthand experience aboard the Palestine flotilla.
Meanwhile, Nathalie Farah will discuss her role as a key organiser of the convergence on Pine Gap held the previous week.
Brownlie said, “Our priorities are climate action, equity and no war.”
She argued that Australia’s security and prosperity depend on strong relationships in its own region, especially with Pacific neighbours, rather than helping Washington maintain global supremacy.
Brownlie also linked defence spending to domestic priorities. She said money directed to AUKUS and hosting US forces could instead support climate resilience, housing, health and education.
Brownlie said the Adelaide conference would build momentum alongside the Pine Gap convergence and Abby Martin’s national speaking tour.
The source briefing, issued as a media alert on Monday 20th July 2026, described the conference as an advance notice ahead of the Friday opening in Adelaide.
