We, the undersigned organisations, recognise that nuclear weapons have caused irreversible harm. From the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the radioactive legacies of testing on First Nations land in Australia at Maralinga, Emu Field and the Monte Bello Islands, and across the Pacific, including in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Ma’ohi Nui, communities continue to bear the scars.

Today, escalating global tensions, renewed nuclear threats, expanding nuclear arsenals and the end of arms-control and disarmament agreements have pushed the risk of nuclear use, by accident or by intent, to its highest level in decades.

No health service in the world would be capable of responding to the devastation even a single nuclear weapon could inflict on a city’s people, and even a “limited” nuclear war in one region would cause abrupt climate disruption and starvation worldwide.

As civil society organisations committed to peace, justice, human dignity and a living planet, we raise deep concern about Australia’s current trajectory towards increasing involvement in the command, control, targeting, hosting and possible launch of nuclear weapons from Australia.

We urge the Albanese government to fulfill Labor’s important, long-standing national policy commitment to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and expect an announcement by or at the next Labor National Conference in Adelaide this July that the government will sign the TPNW in this term.

Our concerns:

• Nuclear weapons in Australia: Australia’s expanding military integration with nuclear-armed allies, including under AUKUS, could mean not only deepening our role in their nuclear possession, planning, control, targeting and threats but also hosting nuclear-capable aircraft and vessels. This includes, but is not limited to, the planned hosting of US nuclear-capable B-52s in the Northern Territory, and planned hosting of US attack submarines under the AUKUS agreement which may again become nuclear-capable in coming years. In enabling the presence of nuclear weapons, Australia could become a launchpad for nuclear war and an even higher priority target for adversaries.

• “Nuclear ambiguity” and secrecy: Policies which normalise nuclear ambiguity risk undermining the integrity of the region’s nuclear-free status. Australia’s nuclear-armed allies’ “neither confirm nor deny” the presence of nuclear weapons on visiting submarines, ships or planes. This creates unacceptable uncertainty and risk. Australia currently has no legal ban on foreign nuclear weapons being brought into Australia, or being launched from Australia. Allowing visits of nuclear-capable craft, especially in this context, is unacceptable nuclear complicity.  Keeping nuclear weapons out of Australia makes us all, and the world, more secure. When it comes to nuclear weapons, we have the right to know, and the right to say no.

• Acting against international law: Australia is a party to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, created by Pacific states after nuclear testing in the region, and prohibiting the stationing and deployment of nuclear weapons. Australia is a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that obliges parties to negotiate “effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.” Further, the use of nuclear weapons is not consistent with the principles of international humanitarian law.  

Our calls:

We call on the Australian Government to draw a red line on nuclear weapons:

• Sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a matter of urgency, signing in this term of government, comprehensively repudiating nuclear weapons including extended nuclear deterrence, fulfilling Labor’s long-standing policy commitment and aligning Australia with the global majority of nations choosing to reject nuclear weapons. 

• Reject nuclear ambiguity and prohibit the entry, transit or presence of nuclear weapons in Australian territory, waters and airspace.

• End all forms of assistance to nuclear weapons activities, including targeting, command, control, planning or enabling operations that support the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.

Our Commitment

As civil society organisations, we commit to working together, alongside First Nations and other communities affected by nuclear weapons, decision-makers and experts to ensure Australia fulfils its promised commitment to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. 

To do nothing is to accept the path to nuclear war.

We urge the Australian government to act with courage for transparency, humanity and international law, ensuring nuclear weapons never have a place in Australia.