Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

What we have said is that we will consider the treaty, including questions about its universality, its interaction with the non-proliferation treaty and the need to ensure effective verification and enforcement architecture. Those are reasonable propositions if you actually want a world that is free of nuclear weapons—if you actually want a world where we progress towards disarmament. You have to have universality and you have to have an 'I' to the NPT, which is the only treaty to which the nuclear parties are party. And you have to have verification and enforcement architecture. That is the logic of making sure you have progress on disarmament: you have to have verification and enforcement. That's a reasonable position.

I understand the concern that people have and I would point you to the work that the government is doing, whether that's on the NPT, our attendance at the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons conferences or the— (Time expired)