Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

  (a)   notes that:

     (i)   23 300 nuclear weapons are in existence posing direct and constant threat to international peace and security with thousands on hair trigger alert ready to be launched within minutes of an order to fire,

     (ii)   nine countries possess nuclear weapons and under 'nuclear sharing' arrangements five others have nuclear weapons on their soil, and

     (iii)   at the height of the cold war, nuclear weapon stockpiles were approximately 70 000 warheads and more than 40 000 have been dismantled;

  (b)   welcomes efforts taken by the Government to advance nuclear disarmament diplomacy, including the establishment of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and the request for the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties to undertake an inquiry into the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament treaties involving Australia; and

  (c)   calls on the Government to support the United Nations General Assembly resolution on the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My Deputy President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I indicate that the government does not support this motion. The government does acknowledge the importance of public debate on foreign policy issues such as this, but it does not support dealing with complex foreign policy matters through the use of simple Senate resolutions. The government is committed to progress on non-proliferation and disarmament, as evidenced by its support for the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament and its establishment with Japan of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative to advance the recommendations of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. The government's non-proliferation and disarmament priorities are negotiation of a fissile material cut-off treaty and entry into force of the comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty. Together these measures would build the conditions for reaching our ultimate goal of a nuclear weapon free world. The government does not support the link made by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons with an immediate obligation to conclude a nuclear weapons convention. I thank the Senate.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Ludlam's) be agreed to.

The Senate divided. [15:43]

(The Deputy President—Senator Parry)

Question negatived.