Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This motion was moved by the Prime Minister yesterday in the other place, reflecting the importance of this issue and its place in the architecture of Australian foreign policy. This motion flows from the work of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, particularly report No. 106. I thank my colleagues and predecessors for their efforts in recognising the consensus view on this matter. I also had the honour this week of meeting the Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Prof. Ramesh Thakur, as part of the United Nations parliamentary group. Prof. Thakur clearly articulated that if we want to deal with the issue of nuclear proliferation we must pursue disarmament. The only way to liberate the world from the terrible potential of nuclear conflict is to disarm, reduce and eventually abolish nuclear weapons.

This motion recognises a number of efforts by Australia and by other nations to contribute to the disarmament regime and to aid its principal instrument, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1972 Australia joined New Zealand at the International Court of Justice in actions against nuclear testing in the Pacific. In 1995 we established the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and in 2008 joined with Japan to establish the independent International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. In 2010 we partnered with Japan to establish the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative. But if we are one day to realise the goal of a nuclear weapons-free world, a goal I believe is shared by all parties in the Senate, we must continue the campaign against nuclear weapons as a priority in Australia's international agenda. We must redouble our efforts and constantly recommit to a world without the fear of nuclear weapons. I commend the motion.