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.

The first of July marks the 80th anniversary of the first US nuclear detonation in the Marshall Islands. The second of July will mark 60 years since the first French detonation at Mururoa atoll. This motion is an opportunity to acknowledge the harmful and enduring environmental, cultural and health consequences of cumulative historical United States, French and British nuclear testing in the region carried out between 1946 and 1996. 

Pacific nations demonstrated significant leadership in ensuring the entry into force of the TPNW, with 10 Pacific states among the original 50 when it entered into force.  The Solomon Islands was the most recent Pacific Island state to ratify the treaty, in 2024.

I’ll continue to advocate for the importance of sustained international commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Time is running out.

We spend so much money in the world on weapons and on defence. When you look at the situation there in the beautiful Marshall Islands, you have to wonder why it is not being cleaned up.

Of course, it wasn’t just the United States; it was the British and it was the French as well. We know that. Sadly—unfortunately—Pacific Islanders and their beautiful region were used as a testing ground, and the effects are still being felt. It is up to those who did the testing to clean up their mess.

If we’re not able to tell the truth about these events, both from the recent past and from the more distant past, then we betray everyone who suffered and we leave behind those who had everything taken from them.

This included forced removal of communities. Once you’re removed from a place that your ancestors have called home, you lose that spiritual connection as well. The ancestors need to be present.

There can be no greater devastation than a nuclear weapon upon ancestral land. It changes everything, right down to the molecular DNA. We know what radiation sickness does. We’ve seen it.

This didn’t have to happen, but it did. It is now on us to remember and ensure that this never happens again. 

Australia was not just a neighbour to nuclear testing but part of the system that enabled it. British nuclear tests were conducted on Australia’s own soil between 1952 and 1963 at Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga, with particular consequence, as we’ve just heard, for our First Nations people and for veterans personnel.

The relationship between Australia and the Pacific is deep and affectionate and we have a responsibility to play a role in ensuring nuclear testing never occurs again in this region. I am proud that Australia does not have a program to develop nuclear weapons and has consistently supported the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. However, I want Australia to strengthen this resolve further by joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

This treaty is a commitment to never develop or use nuclear weapons or to host another country’s nuclear arsenal. Importantly, it would require countries to assist victims and remediate contaminated environments. It fills a significant gap in international law and, importantly, it provides a framework to eliminate nuclear weapons and their associated facilities. 

A sustained international commitment to practical measures that reduce nuclear risks, strengthen the global non-proliferation and disarmament architecture, and lower the chances of nuclear weapons ever being used again is critical. 

As a government, we acknowledge and welcome the advocacy that’s present in the room this evening, and we want to stand with the Pacific in making sure that our world here has changed and that we work together as sovereign cousins, if you like, to ensure the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons internationally.

The Pacific has a loud voice in this space. I welcome that, and I welcome it here in Canberra this week.

Rev. James Bhagwan is an ordained minister, writer, preacher and regional advocate. His work is shaped by the Pacific’s experience of colonialism, militarisation and environmental harm.

Nuclear justice is a long-standing concern of the Pacific churches. Rev. Bhagwan’s advocacy is rooted in solidarity with communities affected by nuclear testing and militarisation across Oceania, including Mā‘ohi Nui/French Polynesia, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Indigenous communities in Australia. For him, nuclear harm is not only a political or security issue, but a spiritual, ecological and human one — touching land, ocean, health, memory, truth-telling and future generations.

Merewalesi Tuilau is a rights activist, facilitator and a leader from Fiji. Her advocacy on self-determination, nuclear, and ocean issues comes from over 10 years of engagement with Pacific agencies and governments within regional civil society organisations, movements and International.

Merewalesi’s passion in people as stewards of the vast Pacific Ocean is a testament of our call to safeguard, guide and determine our destiny, and to navigate our narratives until we the people of Oceania are fully free. Merewalesi serves as United Liberation Movement for West Papua Fiji Head of Mission and is an expert for Nuclear Weapons with ICAN International for Fiji Veterans and Families Association. 

Samuel Barton is the President of the Marshall Islands Student Association (MISA), at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji, where he is in his final year studying law. Samuel was a lead organiser of the Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day event at University of the South Pacific this year. 

Frances Namoumou is a Pacific climate justice advocate, a Methodist, and an Indigenous Fijian (i-taukei) woman whose work bridges faith, gender justice, peacebuilding, and ecological stewardship across local, regional, and global spaces. As Ecumenical Animator for the Ecological Stewardship and Climate Justice Programme of the Pacific Conference of Churches, she accompanies churches and communities across Oceania as they respond to the interconnected challenges of climate change, displacement, biodiversity loss, gender inequality, and the pursuit of a just and peaceful transition.

Karina Lester is a Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in the far northwest of South Australia. Karina grew up in the remote community of Mimili in the beautiful Everard Ranges with her father’s people and is determined to keep her language alive for future generations.    

Karina is a senior Aboriginal language worker, an ICAN Ambassador and a prominent nuclear free advocate, sharing not only her late father’s (Yami Lester) story but her grandmother’s story of the impacts of the British Nuclear Tests in the 1950’s – 1960’s on people and country. Karina participated in the negotiating conference for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, has attended two out of three meetings of states parties to the TPNW and has toured Australia on several speaking tours. She has played a leading role in campaigns to prevent international nuclear waste storage in South Australia.

Maxine Goodwin is the daughter of an Australin nuclear veteran. In 1952, Maxine’s father, a Royal Australian Air Force radio technician, was deployed to Onslow, Western Australia, for Operation Hurricane—the first British atomic test in Australia. He was responsible for servicing Dakota aircraft tasked with coastal security monitoring. He later recalled being onboard an aircraft that detected intense radioactivity the day after the detonation.

Maxine has spent more than twenty years researching her father’s story and has contributed to arts projects highlighting the experiences of nuclear test veterans and their families. In 2023, she joined an ICAN delegation to Canberra to highlight the harms caused by nuclear weapons testing and urge the Prime Minister to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In July 2025, Maxine visited the Montebello Islands and Onslow, Western Australia, with a group of artists, writers, researchers and other nuclear descendants to explore the legacies of nuclear testing firsthand.