Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the resolution of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, on 10 September 2006 in Helsinki, calling for:

(i)

relevant governments to make public all information relevant to the health and environmental consequences of their nuclear test explosions, including opening their archives to independent researchers,

(ii)

long-term health and environmental effects of nuclear test explosions to be comprehensively and independently evaluated,

(iii)

underground and underwater nuclear test sites and related contaminated areas to undergo best practice clean-up to be secured as much as feasible against radioactive and chemical toxic leakage into the biosphere and to be subject to long-term monitoring, and

(iv)

responsibility for these public health measures to properly belong to the governments which conducted the nuclear test explosion;

(b)

urges the Government to initiate talks with nuclear weapons states that have conducted tests and those states that have hosted these tests with a view to developing a treaty between the parties to at least put in place the measures called for in paragraph (a);

(c)

encourages the Government to redouble efforts to encourage other countries to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and bring it into force; and

(d)

urges the Government to use its best diplomatic endeavours to dissuade North Korea from further nuclear weapons testing, and resist calls for military action against North Korea.

Question put.