David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It's an incredibly timely point in history to reflect on the importance of nuclear disarmament, as we look to Putin's war on Ukraine and his threats of nuclear action. As recently as last month, Putin confronted the world with the grim prospect of nuclear war. His threat was intended for the West and was as plain as it was ugly: move out of his way or risk nuclear retaliation. This is the power of weapons of mass destruction. They allow the world to be held to ransom while innocent people are murdered. In the wrong hands, or in the right hands—in anyone's hands—they're an unwanted blight upon our planet and our shared life together, serving no other purpose than to inspire fear and destroy life.

We have only to look at the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to understand the consequences of their use—an estimated 80,000 innocent people murdered in mere seconds, with many more to die from radiation in the decades thereafter. This event alone should have led to disarmament. Yet, sadly, there are still almost 13,000 warheads in existence, with some 90 per cent of them concentrated in the hands of just two countries. Nuclear disarmament is needed now more than ever, which is why I wrote to Minister Wong a month ago urging her to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This weekend Australia has the opportunity to vote in support of the treaty at the UN General Assembly, consistent with commitments made in Labor's national platform.

The importance of this treaty cannot be underestimated. It is a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any form of nuclear weaponisation. And it's not every day that Australians win Nobel Peace Prizes, but the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for their work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and their groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty based prohibition of such weapons.

This award was largely unheralded, and it's no surprise, given the excuses we're hearing today from the major parties about why this can't be done. Developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, using or even threatening to use nuclear weapons would become prohibited—and it should become prohibited. There is no downside to signing and ratifying this agreement. Doing so is in our nation's interest. It is in everyone's interest. (Time expired)