Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This evening I rise to speak on the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties into Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. It is of grave moral concern that humankind has the capacity to destroy entire communities, entire cities, even entire societies with a single act—the use of a single nuclear weapon. It is time to renew global efforts to rid the world of these profoundly immoral weapons. We must work to reduce the unacceptable risk these weapons pose to global security.

As the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties makes clear, if we fail to tackle this problem it will simply continue to grow and grow. It has been clear for some time now that states seek to acquire nuclear weapons in response to other states having them. The more weapons that exist and the more actors that carry them, the greater the risk of accident, the greater the risk of intentional use and, most chillingly of all, the more opportunity for such weapons to fall into the wrong hands—the hands of non-state actors and terrorists groups with no respect for human life.

There is a global arsenal of some 23,000 nuclear weapons. We have over the years been on the brink of nuclear disaster, with some very narrow escapes. In many instances weak command and control systems regarding the use of nuclear weapons have caused legitimate unease. It is of considerable concern that North Korea claims to have withdrawn from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, while Iran is also refusing International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. Meanwhile, there is increasing civilian demand for nuclear energy. All of this represents a nuclear proliferation risk, especially if there are not adequate restrictions on reprocessing and enrichment.

US President Barack Obama had this to say about the risk facing the globe on this front:

Today, the Cold War has disappeared but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. More nations have acquired these weapons. Testing has continued. Black markets trade in nuclear secrets and materials. The technology to build a bomb has spread. Terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal one. Our efforts to contain these dangers are centered in a global non-proliferation regime, but as more people and nations break the rules, we could reach the point when the center cannot hold.

I find it heartening to know that the President of the United States so fully and clearly comprehends the threat that nuclear weapons pose to global security, especially when the United States has a large arsenal of its own.

There is a growing global commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. However, making good on this commitment is going to take considerable political will and practical steps over many years. There are many instruments that already seek to limit weapons proliferation. The international community must work together to strengthen and renew these instruments and to set new binding goals. We should be moving towards the ratification of the comprehensive test ban treaty. For this to happen, the United States must sign, and hopefully other nations will follow suit. The existing nuclear non-proliferation treaty needs to be enforced and new goals need to be set for it. A treaty banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons is also vital. There is a significant need to properly resource the International Atomic Energy Agency because this agency currently cannot do its job properly. The doctrine of ‘no first use’ also needs to be entrenched. The committee’s report outlines the importance of these and other instruments. Instruments like these could see the world take substantial steps towards disarmament in coming years. It will require strong political will from leaders of governments, an engaged civil society that pushes individual governments and global forums working for strong commitments.

The end goal is a world without these heinous weapons. Reaching this end will require a substantial global commitment, including a commitment to addressing the many geopolitical tensions besetting our world, so that nations feel that they can disarm. This will not be easy, but it is imperative, as the existence of even a single weapon can motivate further proliferation through a defensive reaction. I would support our aiming towards a nuclear weapons convention that firmly expresses this end goal. For this to happen, parliamentarians around the globe must be more involved in these debates. In its report, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties called on parliamentarians to play a role in supporting a national and global commitment to this important issue.

I would like to acknowledge the hard work on this issue that was undertaken by the committee chair, Kelvin Thomson. His leadership on this report has demonstrated his deep personal resolve to make a contribution to nuclear disarmament. We must, I think, all join him to make every endeavour to disarm the globe. We must do all we can to reduce this colossal risk. We must confront this evil. Should any city or community ever experience the unthinkable—the use of a nuclear weapon against its people—we will surely despair and wonder why we had not done all within our power to prevent such a catastrophe.