As Melbourne University welcomes thousands of visitors on Open Day, doctors are staging a colourful protest against the university’s partnership with nuclear weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.
National Secretary of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW), Dr Margie Beavis, says: “We’re here to draw attention to Melbourne University’s unethical and unhealthy partnership with Lockheed Martin.”
Lockheed Martin and Melbourne University partnered in 2016 to establish a co-joint research centre, Lockheed Martin’s first research centre outside of the US.
Lockheed Martin is heavily involved in nuclear weapons manufacture, targeting, and deployment.
Nuclear weapons are an overwhelming existential threat and will be banned upon the entry into force of the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
MAPW’s Dr Jenny Grounds said, “Prospective students should know that this university, by supporting Lockheed Martin’s research, is legitimising nuclear weapons and inhibiting progress towards their abolition.”
