{"id":25197,"date":"2025-07-26T13:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T13:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25197\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T13:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T13:53:09","slug":"crass-statue-pops-up-as-uk-defence-pact-signed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25197\/","title":{"rendered":"Crass statue pops up as UK defence pact signed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A crass piece of political art has accused Richard Marles of being \u201cAustralia\u2019s biggest brown-noser\u201d as the defence minister signed a 50-year treaty alongside his UK counterpart.<\/p>\n

The installation, outside Mr Marles electoral office in Geelong, depicted a large nose with an apparent fecal smear.<\/p>\n

Affixed to a light post by chain, the work is attributed to The New Radicals and names Mr Marles.<\/p>\n

\"Supplied<\/p>\n

A piece of protest art was left in the Geelong CBD labelling Richard Marles “Australia’s biggest brown-noser” on the day of the signing of the Geelong treaty. Picture X \/ @maximum_chips<\/p>\n

\"Supplied<\/p>\n

The art was cleaned up promptly and gone by 5pm. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n

The protest art comes as Mr Marles signed a new five-decade treaty with the United Kingdom to cement the AUKUS submarine pact in his home city.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u2018The Geelong Treaty\u2019, the defence minister said the agreement would enable co-operation on the SSN-Aukus submarine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn doing this, AUKUS will see 20,000 jobs in Australia. It will see, in building submarines in this country, the biggest industrial endeavour in our nation\u2019s history, bigger even than the Snowy Hydro scheme,\u201d Mr Marles said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn military terms, what it will deliver is the biggest leap in Australia\u2019s military capability, really, since the formation of the navy back in 1913.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RICHARD<\/p>\n

Deputy PM Richard Marles and UK Defence Secretary John Healey sign the Geelong Treaty. Picture: NewsWire \/ Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

\"RICHARD<\/p>\n

The two men later enjoyed a Saturday beer. Picture: NewsWire \/ Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

The new treaty was announced following the annual AUKMIN talks in Sydney on Friday.<\/p>\n

Alongside his counterpart, UK Secretary of State for Defence John Healey, the two men celebrated the treaty with a beer at a Geelong brewery.<\/p>\n

Spotted in Geelong\u2019s CBD on Saturday afternoon, the piece has vanished by 5pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crass piece of political art has accused Richard Marles of being \u201cAustralia\u2019s biggest brown-noser\u201d as the defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,428,15904,1120,96,15903,15902,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-25197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-defence-minister","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-protest-art","16":"tag-richard-marles","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}