Information for Councils

How might councils be involved in responding to a nuclear attack?

The list below, compiled by Mayors for Peace Fremantle, outlines just some of the coordination efforts that would fall within councils’ responsiblity following the immediate impacts of a nuclear detonation.

1. Remediating unsafe buildings still standing
2. Managing street and road debris
3. Ongoing collection of vast amounts of waste
4. Identifying safer places to meet and communicate with the community
5. Licensing temporary food outlets
6. Hygiene and local sewerage arrangements
7. Arrangements for triage, temporary hospitals on local parks
8. Local mass burials
9. Evacuations
10. Managing the loss of infrastructure such as traffic lights and telecommunications networks.
11. Council mental health
12. Enforcements of curfews
13. Managing food shortages and redistribution
14. Managing social unrest
15. Waste, sewerage, disease
16. Administering aspects of martial law

What is the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?

The TPNW, also known as the nuclear weapon ban treaty, was negotiated and adopted at the United Nations with the support of 122 nations in 2017. It is the first instrument of international law to clearly outlaw the development, possession, hosting, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The ban treaty is a crucial element in efforts to stigmatise and eliminate nuclear weapons. It entered into force and became permanent international law on January 22, 2021.

The TPNW follows the path that is proving effective for biological and chemical weapons, landmines and cluster munitions. A treaty prohibiting and providing for the elimination of these weapons has been crucial, indeed no other approach has worked. Please check the front page of our website for the up-to-date number of signatories and states parties to the TPNW. While nuclear-armed states are yet to join the treaty, their support was not expected straight away. Like the treaties prohibiting other abhorrent weapons, the TPNW will work over time to strengthen the stigma against nuclear weapons, de-legitimising nuclear deterrence and the very possession of these abhorrent weapons.

Why should Australia sign and ratify it?

Australia has joined the treaties prohibiting chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions. Australia has already agreed to most of the provisions within the TPNW by joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the South Pacific Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, and has long claimed to support nuclear disarmament.

Current Australian defence policy supports the threat and potential use of nuclear weapons by the United States on Australia’s behalf. Australia can end this policy while maintaining a strong military alliance with the US, as other nations have done. The supposed benefits of nuclear deterrence are ultimately unproven, yet nuclear weapons work to undermine international security and diplomacy. The ban treaty provides the best pathway forward to strengthen the norm against nuclear weapons and pursue their total elimination.

What else can local councils do?

• Write to the national government:
  Inform the foreign minister or other relevant ofcial that your city/town has endorsed the ICAN Cities Appeal.
• Inform the media:
  Issue a press release commemorating the 80th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and announcing that your city/town has joined the call for the national government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
• Inform your residents:
  Distribute information or hold a public exhibition about the threat of nuclear weapons.
• Divest public funds:
  Review council investment portfolios and policies to ensure the council funds are nuclear weapons free. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is already impacting the flow of funds to nuclear arms producing companies. Financial institutions often choose not to invest in “controversial weapons,” which are typically weapons prohibited by international law. You can download a divestment guide to share with your finance team here.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Cities Appeal is a global call from cities and towns in support of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Cities Appeal reads:

Our city/town is deeply concerned about the grave threat that nuclear weapons pose to communities throughout the world. We firmly believe that our residents have the right to live in a world free from this threat. Any use of nuclear weapons, whether deliberate or accidental, would have catastrophic, far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for people and the environment.

Therefore, we warmly welcome the entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 22 January 2021, and we call on our national government to sign and ratify it without delay.

Check out the list of Australian councils who have endorsed the Cities Appeal and pledged their support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Download this flyer here

In June 2021, after several years of local government leadership, a motion in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was passed unanimously at the ALGA National General Assembly in Canberra. 

The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) is the national voice of local government, representing 537 councils across the country. In structure, its is a federation of state and territory local government associations.