"Our government must publicly signal its willingness to actively support discussions around a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons." Photo: Reuters
Even by the horrible metrics of war, the detonation of a nuclear warhead on Hiroshima in 1945 saw destruction of human life, and of the city itself, on a scale previously unimaginable.
More than 130,000 people died from that event and from the ongoing effects of radiation sickness and cancer. Since that time the number and destructive force of these weapons grew rapidly as the superpowers of the day, the US and the Soviet Union, embarked on a nuclear arms race.
Other countries followed suit and at the height of the madness there were about 60,000 weapons of mass destruction.
There's always been significant opposition to nuclear weapons, and in the 1960s a test-ban treaty and a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, committing nuclear powers to take steps towards disarmament, were concluded. But progress was painfully slow. With the Cold War in full swing nuclear weapons remained at the apex of a military strategy that threatened, in particular, the people of Europe with annihilation.
In the 1980s, large mass movements including, ironically, retired military leaders, and musicians like myself, responded to this threat and called for action. The key nuclear powers agreed to reduce their arsenals and move towards eventual disarmament. Again progress has been glacial.
Today the number of warheads stands at about 17,000, each one capable of obliterating cities and regions in a maelstrom of radioactive fall out. Rogue states such as North Korea threaten to activate their nuclear capacity, terrorists traffic in nuclear material, and the ever-present possibility of accidents makes it likely that the unthinkable will one day happen.
But there is hope.
Many countries, supported by organisations such as the Red Cross and the United Nations, have recognised that a circuit breaker is urgently needed. Last year, more than 130 nations and non-governmental organisations met in Oslo at the invitation of the Norwegian government to consider for the first time the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.
Reports showed that up to 1 billion people would face starvation should a conflict involving nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan break out. The Oslo conference found that no international response plan could ever adequately deal with a nuclear detonation. The human and environmental consequences of a nuclear exchange are so great, and the current progress to eliminate them so slow, that a majority of countries are seeking a new treaty that makes the possession of nuclear weapons illegal.
A global groundswell has been building and a follow-up meeting, this time at the invitation of the government of Mexico, takes place over the next two days. About 180 nations, including Australia, are gathering to lay the foundation for a new treaty. Australia is a signatory to the South Pacific Nuclear Zone Treaty, we are a member of the UN Security Council and we have worked hard on disarmament in the international arena.
While professing support for the principle of disarmament, the position adopted by successive governments is that we will not actively pursue these measures where they conflict with our greater strategic interest in ensuring a credible US deterrence.
It is time for this nexus to be broken. The rationale for deterrence no longer stands. The last Parliament supported a motion calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Yet, at the Oslo meeting our bureaucrats, under the direction of then foreign affairs minister Bob Carr, sat on their hands and did nothing.
Former prime ministers Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke, foreign affairs ministers, a swag of premiers and numerous eminent Australians have all publicly expressed support for a ban on nuclear weapons. This is achievable considering the successful banning of chemical and biological weapons, landmines and, most recently, cluster munitions. It can be done.
Australia should play a constructive role but independence of mind by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop is needed. If we are genuine about disarmament it is no longer acceptable to parrot the talking points of the nuclear powers. Instead, in the coming days our government must publicly signal its willingness to actively support discussions around a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons.
Peter Garrett is a musician and former Labor minister.