Against the current global uncertainty and the growing threat of Australia hosting nuclear weapons over 150 civil society organisations across Australia and the Pacific have united in a call for a nuclear weapons free Australia. 

Led by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Australia), the No Nuclear Weapons in Australia Declaration calls on the Albanese government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) without delay, as renewed global threats push the risk of nuclear conflict to its highest level in decades.

Groups representing millions of people including the Community and Public Sector Union, Nurses and Midwifery Union, Australian Conservation Foundation, Amnesty International, Uniting Church, Pacific Elders Voice, Medical Association for the Prevention of War, and many others have endorsed the call.

“The union movement has always stood against war, and we’re proud to stand with civil society to keep nuclear weapons out of Australia and uphold our national commitment to disarmament,” explained Jiselle Hanna, Branch Secretary from the Community and Public Sector Union. 

The move to keep Australia nuclear weapons-free has reached a critical point with the planned hosting of US nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and potentially nuclear-armed submarines under the AUKUS agreement significantly heightens local risks. These developments not only increase the danger of a catastrophic nuclear accident on Australian soil but makes Australia a potential target for adversaries.

Central to this declaration is a collective demand for Australia to uphold the spirit and letter of the Rarotonga Treaty. As a founding signatory to the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, Australia has a permanent obligation to ensure our region remains shielded from the existential threat of nuclear weapons and the horror of renewed testing. 

“As Australia deepens its military integration under arrangements like AUKUS, Pacific civil society is raising a clear call that these decisions must not undermine the integrity of our nuclear-free region,” said Epeli Lesuma, Nuclear Justice and Demilitarisation Campaigner for the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG). 

“Australia has a responsibility to uphold both the spirit and letter of its commitments under the Treaty of Rarotonga, and to reinforce those commitments by signing and ratifying the TPNW,” he continued.

Additional quotes:

“The massive scale of this declaration sends a clear message that Australians will not accept a slide toward Australia losing its nuclear weapon-free status. To truly protect our future and the Pacific, Australia must demonstrate leadership by signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons now. We cannot advocate for a rules-based order while staying outside of the only global treaty that bans the world’s most destructive weapons.”

— Janet Craven, Director, ICAN Australia

“The only way to avoid nuclear catastrophe and to discourage more states from seeking their own nuclear weapons, is to uphold and vigorously defend international law and to implement the TPNW—a treaty which seeks to ban nuclear weapons for all states. In moments of crisis such as these, the temptation is to close ranks. The responsibility of middle powers like Australia, however, is in fact the opposite: to insist that the rules matter most when they are most inconvenient.”

— ICAN Co-Chairs, Marianne Hanson & Tara Gutman

“The commitment to AUKUS further locks Australia into the unpredictable war games of our allies. It is time more citizens spoke out against the loss of Australian sovereignty and demanded our nation be independent in managing our own foreign and defence policies and they must be NUCLEAR FREE.”

— Margaret Reynolds, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Australia)

“Nuclear weapons represent an unacceptable threat to human health and wellbeing—no health system could respond to their catastrophic impacts, and prevention is the only cure. We stand with the global health community in calling for Australia to reject nuclear weapons and commit to a future grounded in disarmament, transparency, and the protection of life.”

— Genevieve Dean, Australian Medical Students’ Association