CAMPAIGN NEWS:
Press Conference 80th Anniversary of First Pacific Nuclear Detonation
“An ocean of peace can only exist when the nuclear option is taken off the table.”
Today in Canberra, a delegation of Pacific nuclear survivors and advocates addressed the press in Canberra as part of a series of Parliamentary Events to call on the Australian Prime Minister to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test in the region. Speakers in order of appearance:
- Senator David Shoebridge (Greens) – Co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
- Andrew Wilkie MP (Independent) – Member for Clarke, Tasmania.
- Karina Lester Anangu-Yankunytjatjara woman and second-generation nuclear test survivor.
- Reverend James Bhagwan, General Secretary, Pacific Conference of Churches.
- Samuel Barton, President of the Marshall Islands Student Association (MISA).
That is why it is incredibly important that we have First Nations leaders, Pacific leaders coming here today on that 80th anniversary and demanding a peaceful Pacific, demanding First Nations cultures, indigenous cultures, their ways of life and respect for this planet, this extraordinary blue part of the planet is actually embedded into Australian law and international law.
And a key thing the Albanese government can do to respect that concept of a peaceful Pacific is to finally sign the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. The Pacific are telling us, our friends, our neighbors, our First Nations leaders in this country, they are telling us that the toxic legacy of atomic weapons never ends. Young people continue to inherit the legacy. Justice has never been delivered for veterans in Fiji. here, the Marshall Islands or First Nations peoples in this country. And how do we prevent that injustice happening again? The best and first and best way is for Australia to sign that treaty and for the world to finally ban the bomb. I’ll hand over to my friend.
You know, there’s over 12,000 nuclear warheads still in existence in the world. It’s down from a peak of about 60,000 warheads during the Cold War, but it’s still more than enough nuclear warheads to destroy humanity as we know it many times over. We cannot tolerate that. We can’t accept that as the status quo.
So we have to keep up the fight. Now, people might say we’re dreamers. You know, you can’t uninvent nuclear weapons. But you know what? We have to keep aspiring for that aim because we can’t accept the status quo. So, I applaud I can I call on the Australian government to do more, to sign international treaties, to to assure people that it will fight for a nuclear free world because only then will we step back from that brink of destruction.
In 2017 we had started negotiations on the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. That 2017 was the same year that the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2018, our prime or not our prime minister, the opposition at the time, Anthony Albanese, made a promise to sign and ratify this treaty in the national portfolio and platform. And so we are now calling again years later in 2026 for our Australian government to sign and ratify this Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Our Pacific friends have experience. We in First Nations and in our own country of Australia have lived experience. These weapons cause harm not only to our people, not only to our land and our oceans. It cause harm to future generations as well. So I ask the Australian government and I ask the Australian people, you know, what are our plans and why haven’t we yet signed this Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?
I want to call on our Pacific friends, Reverend James, to say a few words from the Pacific. Thank you.
We recently last year at the Pacific Islands Forum saw the signing of the Ocean of Peace Declaration. We are calling for peace in this region. Later this year, we sign or we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Raaratonga, which Australia signed, declaring the South Pacific a nuclear-free zone. We commemorate this year the 30th anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which again Australia took the lead in.
And so we are asking Australia now to come forward, step up, sign this treaty because an ocean of peace can only exist when the nuclear option is taken off the table. This is a time of huge militarization contestation in our blue Pacific. Australia is signing a security agreements with Pacific island countries, signing treaties. There are calls for an ocean of peace treaty, but that can’t happen until we have this treaty signed. And so we I think I ask the same question that Karina asks to the people of Australia and to the Australian government. When will you sign?
Thank you, Reverend James.
Hello to everyone in this room and to everyone in all of Australia. My name is Samuel Barton. I am a youth representative representing the Marshall Island Students Association and we run a campaign called the Misa for the Pacific which our work revolves around advocating for anti-nuclear and climate change activism.
And this this day is the 80th anniversary for our islands because it’s when the initial testings uh first took place where the United States deceived my people into relocating them and erasing their land, their history and their culture and their identity. And we call upon this state to sign this treaty because we know the con what the consequences are and we know that this type of consequence transcends generations.