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

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

more than 2 000 nuclear weapons tests have been conducted between 1945 and 2009,

(ii)

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear test explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes,

(iii)

the sixth Article XIV (Entry Into Force) conference (the conference) of the CTBT will be held on 24 September and 25 September 2009,

(iv)

for more than half a century countless scientific experts, political leaders and community organisations have pursued the goal of a more secure world free of the dangers of nuclear weapons test explosions,

(v)

the CTBT is important to all states because it stigmatises nuclear testing, halts the qualitative and quantitative nuclear arms race and the development of increasingly more destructive weapons, and protects human health and the global environment from the devastating effects of nuclear weapons production and testing, and

(vi)

nine states required for the entry into force of the treaty have not yet ratified the treaty; and

(b)

calls on the Government to:

(i)

renew and sustain dialogue with those nine states that have not ratified the CTBT urging them to do so without delay, most notably those states possessing nuclear weapons, the United States of America, the People’s Republic of China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

(ii)

call on all states possessing nuclear weapons to refrain from research and development efforts that could lead to new warheads and the possibility of the resumption of nuclear testing,

(iii)

participate in the conference at the highest level, and

(iv)

continue to participate and support the development of the CTBT verification regime, including the international monitoring system.

Question agreed to.