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

I, and also on behalf of Senators Wong and McAllister, move:

The Senate:

(a) welcomes the arrival of the Nobel Peace Ride to Canberra at the end of its 900 km bicycle journey from Melbourne;

(b) notes the ride is touring the Nobel Peace Prize medal awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and raising awareness of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;

(c) acknowledges that civil society and non-government organisations in Australia and internationally who form the global movement to secure a ban on nuclear weapons, including ICAN, do important work; and

(d) recognises that, as a non-nuclear armed nation and a good international citizen, Australia can make a significant contribution to promoting disarmament, the reduction of nuclear stockpiles, and the responsible use of nuclear technology, and has historically done so, including through the Canberra Commission in 1995 and the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Nobel Peace Prize is a singular honour. The Australian government shares with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. However, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons risks undermining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons by creating competing obligations. It has nonproliferation safeguard standards weaker than those established under the NPT, and it is vague or silent on verification and enforcement. Australia strongly supports more practical measures for nuclear disarmament, including a fissile material cut-off treaty, the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and further developing verification processes.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens absolutely welcome the Nobel Peace Ride riders to Canberra. I look forward to meeting with them hopefully later today. The former Prime Minister of the country may not have had the good grace to congratulate them on this remarkable achievement, but let me say on behalf of the Australian Greens: a huge congratulations to ICAN, a small group of committed activists based in Melbourne who came together and achieved remarkable things. Thank you for all of your hard work. Thank you to those people right across civil society who are working to rid the world once and for all of nuclear weapons. Of course, the best way to say thank you to those people is to unequivocally support Australia signing and ratifying the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. After all, the whole point of the ride is for this place to support that treaty. We support you in your endeavours, and we urge the government and the Labor Party to do the same.

Question agreed to.