Question (to the Deputy Prime Minister):

Today marks 80 years since the US began nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. It's also 63 years since Britain last tested on Australian soil, and 30 years since France last detonated bombs on French Polynesia. Our Pacific family is calling loudly and clearly for us to honour the legacy of the lives lost and damaged by disease, and environments destroyed, by committing to ban nuclear weapons. When will the government sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?

Response (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence):

I thank the member for her question, and if you'll indulge me, Mr Speaker, can I just add my acknowledgement to my good friend Dato Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, the Malaysian Defence Minister. It's great to see him in the house today.

I thank the honourable member for her question. Today is the 80th anniversary of the first detonation by the United States of a nuclear weapon in the Pacific, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Over the decade or so that ensued from 1946, they detonated around 67 nuclear weapons, including the first detonation by the United States of a hydrogen bomb. Tomorrow will be the 60th anniversary of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon at the Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia.

You are right in saying that both of those events characterise a deep sense of feeling within the Pacific around the role and place of nuclear weapons — such that the Treaty of Rarotonga has characterised the Pacific as a treaty which seeks to have the Pacific as a nuclear-weapons-free part of the world, and we, of course, are a proud signatory to the Treaty of Rarotonga.

We have been, throughout the history of the Pacific Islands Forum, a supporter of the Marshall Islands in terms of all the impacts that have been felt by them from the ongoing impacts of the nuclear weapons tests there. Australia too understands this — at Montebello Island off the coast of Western Australia, Emu Field in South Australia, and of course Maralinga — we were a place of nuclear testing ourselves, and we know the impact that has had in relation to our own First Nations peoples.

We are, as a result of all this, proud signatories of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. We have been, from the outset, signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has been the cornerstone of our support for trying to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. It is worth noting that today there are fewer than 20% of the nuclear warheads in the world than there were at the peak in the 1980s, and the NPT has played its part.

In terms of the Ban Treaty to which you refer, we are observing this very closely. We've attended all the meetings of the state parties since 2022. There are three concerns that we have in relation to it, but we continue to observe it. We obviously support the underlying desire to have a world free of nuclear weapons.

The first goes to the question of the enforcement architecture around the Ban Treaty. The second is its interaction with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and wanting to make sure that it doesn't undermine it. The third goes to the universality of the signatures to the Ban Treaty — right now there is no nuclear weapons state which is participating in it. Ultimately we need to have a regime in the world which actually does seek to change behaviour in relation to those who hold nuclear weapons.

But we will continue to observe the progress of the Ban Treaty. We have a proud history and tradition in this country of working with countries around the world to seek to remove nuclear weapons from this world, and we will continue to pursue that tradition.