CAMPAIGN NEWS:
Labor members call for ‘Relentless Government Leadership’ on Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty at 50th National Conference
“Nothing will stop us from keeping our commitment to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
Today in Adelaide, Labor Party members have taken to the floor of the Party’s 50th National Conference to reinforce the importance of the Party’s commitment to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and deliver calls for urgent action towards signature of the Treaty in this term of government.
Labor first committed to signing and ratifying the TPNW at its National Conference in 2018, reaffirming that commitment in 2021 and in 2023. This platform commitment has remained largely unchanged for eight years, and after more than five years in Government, expectation is growing for delivery of this promise to the Australian people.
As part of the Conference proceedings, Member for Fremantle Josh Wilson MP submitted a Resolution which highlighted Labor’s long history of shaping multilateral efforts on nonproliferation and disarmament. The Resolution also drew attention to rising nuclear risks in times growing conflict and and global instability, and highlighted general areas of work that Labor will focus on in coming years on nuclear weapons issues, including ongoing engagement with the TPNW.
Delegates speaking to the Resolution took the opportunity to press Party leadership to move the longstanding platform commitment forward.
Josh Wilson MP, Labor’s Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the TPNW, called for steps towards signature of the TPNW in this term of government, including the proposal for new Parliamentary Inquiry.
Referencing AUKUS, Linda Scott, former Labor councillor at the City of Sydney, said that “Nothing will stop us from keeping our commitment to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’.
Michael Pilbrow, a New South Wales rank and file delegate called for relentless goverenment leadership, and reminded the Conference of Prime Minister Albanese’s comments when he moved the historic motion in 2018 that joining the TNPW would be “Labor at its best.”
Labor’s platform commitment to sign an ratify the TPNW in Government was reaffirmed in the 2026 platform, along with a new addition to platform text which affirms that Australian defence programs, policies and agreements will continue to be consistent with the Party’s longstanding platform commitments.
The Resolution passed on 5 July 2026 at the ALP National Conference reads:
This Conference recognises that:
- Nuclear weapons present an existential threat to humanity;
- The critical importance of effective nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament work has grown more acute at a time of conflict and instability;
- Recent concerning developments that include reference to the use of ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons and reference to the resumption of ‘sub-critical’ nuclear weapons tests, in addition to the destabilising practice of nuclear missile testing;
- Australia has a proud and significant record of shaping and maintaining the multilateral nonproliferation and disarmament framework that has reduced global nuclear weapon stockpiles and has militated against the spread of nuclear weapon capability; and
- Labor is committed to achieving a world without nuclear weapons;
- On that basis, and to support the continuation of Labor’s commitment to this vital cause, this conference resolves that Labor in government will continue to lead Australia’s efforts to strengthen global nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, including by championing practical risk-reduction measures, advancing regional initiatives that strengthen security and confidence, engaging with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, galvanising efforts for a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and working through multilateral frameworks and initiatives, including the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the cornerstone of the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to deliver sustained progress towards a world without nuclear weapons.
Delegates – there is a danger when rightly we say on many occasions that nuclear weapons present an existential threat to life on Planet Earth, that we become numb to those words and comfortable with that state of affairs.
That is why in government we have redoubled Australia’s efforts to advance the cause of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament in keeping with Labor’s longstanding principled commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons.
That is why in 2018 we made a commitment to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, while seeking to advance the complementarity and universality of that landmark agreement – and I believe that work should be carried forward through a Parliamentary inquiry in the same way that we delivered important change with respect to ‘war powers’.
In the current Australian Parliament, 120 of the 226 Members and Senators have signed the ICAN pledge in support of the TPNW, including 96 members of the Labor Caucus.
At a time of persistent and serious conflict; at a time when the multilateral system is under pressure; at a time when we’ve heard existing nuclear weapon states under the NPT make thinly-veiled threats to use so-called ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons; and other states refer to the resumption of ‘sub-critical’ nuclear weapon testing – we cannot be relaxed about the status quo.
Australia has a tradition of global leadership on nuclear disarmament – and on other areas of weapons control, like land mines and cluster munitions – even where that doesn’t align with the position of every international partner and ally.
I’m proud to come from a community in Fremantle that has a distinctive tradition of anti-nuclear advocacy.
As a delegate who was proud to be part of the 2018 Labor Conference here in Adelaide that secured commitments to recognise the State of Palestine and to sign and ratify the TPNW, I am grateful to be part of a Labor government that has recognised Palestine.
As the Labor convenor of the Parliamentary Friends of the TPNW I’m determined to work with colleagues in the Party, in the Union movement, and civil society to see this Labor government sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Delegates, I commend and endorse the amendment and rise to speak to an additional clause in the platform secured through the national policy forum process on behalf of the mighty Sydney rank and file delegates who elected me to this conference, and with enormous thanks to the Nobel prize winning ICAN for their patient, principled and profound advocacy.
Delegates, the clause reads that “Labor affirms that Australian defence programs, policies and agreement will continue to be consistent with our longstanding commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and safety, including those contained in the Nuclear Disarmament Statement in Detail.”
This clause matters. Many years ago, I promised Tom Uren I would never stop fighting and working for peace and nuclear non-proliferation. and I stand here today firmly holding his memory.
This clause reaffirms in black and white in our binding platform that our defence programs, like AUKUS, will remain consistent with our long-standing commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.
Nothing will stop us from keeping our commitment to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
This is not a footnote, it is Labor’s founding faith restated, that peace is not passive, it is a pursuit, disarmament is not a dream it is a discipline, that safety is not a slogan it is a strategy. We’re the party of Doc Evatt, who helped draft that UN Charter, we are the party of the mighty Penny Wong, world champion of peace and diplomacy.
Labor is the only political party who knows that Australia’s voice, used wisely, can be a force for a safer world. Non-proliferation is a promise we will not break. Peace, real lasting hard-won peace, remains Labor’s highest purpose.
Delegates, I commend the amendment and the chapter to you.
Delegates, as a young man, I had the honor of knowinga great son of Adelaide, Gordon Bilney, former member for Kingston.
Gordon was a Labor Minister who stood with our Pacific neighbours against French nuclear testing in the 1990’s.
He fought to ensure the Pacific would never again bear the burden of nuclear weapons.
Fast forward to the 2018 National Conference which resolved that Labor in government would sign and ratify the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty.
Our party leadership then siad this was ‘Labor at its best’.
And we need to continue to be our best in government by progressing this promise with urgency.
This Government consistently engages with the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, and we should be proud of this.
With this Resolution, we urge relentless government leadership that draws inspiration from the Nobel Prize winning ICAN.
Real steps forward to sign and ratify the Treaty.
And a world without nuclear weapons.
I commend the resolution to the floor.