CAMPAIGN NEWS:
Labor MP Susan Templeman, moves powerful motion commemorating Pacific nuclear test legacies
To mark two solemn anniversaries of nuclear testing in the Pacific region. Susan Templeman MP – Labor Member for Macquarie and member of the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) moved a motion in the Federation Chamber in the House of Representatives.
Eighty years ago this week, nuclear weapons began devastating our Pacific region – in the Marshall Islands, Mā’ohi Nui, Kiribati, and here in Australia at Maralinga, Emu Field and the Montebello Islands. Over 315 nuclear ‘test’ explosions scarred the lands, waters, bodies, cultures and poisoned the food chains on which the regions people depended on.
In attendance were Pacific representatives visiting Parliament to raise the profiles of the anniversaries in Austalia and highlight Australia’s moral and regional responsibility to step up efforts in the region to support affected communities, making a clear call for Australia to advance these objectives by signing and ratifying the TPNW.
The delegation this week included Mere Tuilau from the Fiji Nuclear Veterans and Families Association, Samuel Barton from the Marshall Islands Student Association, Rev James Bhagwan and Frances Namoumou of the Pacific Conference of Churches, and Australia’s First Nations Ambassador and second generation test survivour Karina Lester.
In speaking to the motion in the lower house, Susan Templeman MP highlighted the shared histories of nuclear testing in the Pacific region, including in Australia, and the significant leadership of Pacific Island Nations in breathing new life into disarmament endeavours with their early embrace of the TPNW.
The motion was also spoken to by Michael McCormack MP -Nationals Member for Riverina, Matt Smith MP – Labor Member for Leichhardt, Helen Haines – Independent Member for Indi, and Joanne Ryan MP – Labor Member for Lalor.
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.
The motion moved in the Federation Chamber on Monday 29 June:
Ms Templeman : To move—That this House:
That this House:
(1) notes the 80th anniversary of the commencement of nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, during which over 300 nuclear detonations were conducted across the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, Kiribati and surrounding region;
(2) gives solemn acknowledgment of 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, including the:
(a) exposure of hundreds of thousands of Marshallese, Ma’ohi, and I-Kiribati people to levels of radiation which have contributed to increased cancer rates and other illnesses related to radiation exposure;
(b) exposure of tens of thousands of military service members and workers to radiation levels which have resulted in ongoing consequences for their health and the health of their families;
(c) loss of culture, health and social cohesion resulting from the forced relocation and displacement that separated Pacific Islanders from their families, homes, and ancestral lands; and
(d) widespread environmental impacts which include the contamination of drinking water, food sources and arable land, and the damage to coral reefs and marine ecosystems;
(3) supports the continued strengthening of Australia’s deep partnership with the Pacific family and our longstanding regional cooperation, and in this context, recognises the significance of:
(a) Australia’s continued efforts to support radiation monitoring and nuclear test site assessment in partnership with Pacific nations while recognising that more work can be done to fully address the fallout that persists at former nuclear test sites; and
(b) Australia’s foundational role in and continued implementation of the obligations under the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, which in December 2026 will mark 40 years since it entered into force;
(4) further notes Australia’s history of British nuclear weapons testing in the Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field, and Maralinga, and the disproportionate and ongoing impacts this continues to have on First Nations communities and the environmental and cultural value of their country and the significant impacts on Australian service members and their families;
(5) affirms the importance of sustained international commitment to nuclear non-proliferation through established multilateral frameworks that advance peace and collective security, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and noting the contribution of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
(6) commends the advocacy of victims/survivors in Australia and the Pacific for their steadfast commitment to advancing global nuclear disarmament and their leading role in advancing, signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, including its entry into force in 2021; and
(7) emphasises the urgent imperative for all states to refrain from nuclear weapons testing and to engage in genuine, transparent, and verifiable nuclear disarmament efforts in line with their commitments to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty, including its entry into force, which Australia and its Pacific neighbours strongly support.
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.