PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION AND DISARMAMENT (PNND) AUSTRALIA
HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT
AUSTRALIA AND THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK, NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION TREATY REVIEW CONFERENCE NEW YORK 27 APRIL – 22 MAY
– 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT – WHAT CAN AUSTRALIA DO?
ATTN PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER
ANTHONY ALBANESE PRIME MINISTER
RICHARD MARLES FOREIGN MINISTER
SHADOW FOREIGN MINISTER
STAFF
CC
AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT
FADT
Dear Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Prime Minister Albanese, Defence Minister Richard Marles and shadow Foreign Minister:
The 2026 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference will be taking place in New York from 27 April to 22 May.
In January this year, the advisers of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock advised that the clock be moved forward to an as yet unprecedented 85 metaphorical seconds to midnight, indicating that the risk of nuclear war is greater than it has ever been.
In Feb, a memo was circulated urging the Australian Government to do more to reduce the risks of nuclear war.
While prospects for the NPT conference are dim indeed, and while Australia does not have nuclear weapons or (hopefully) aspire to obtain them, Australia has choices. Australia can, as it seems to have done so far, do nothing whatsoever and endeavour not to 'rock the boat', seemingly already sinking, of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. Or, it can elect to bail like hell and help restrain other parties who are rocking the boat furiously.
Any actions or initiatives from the Australian Government in the lead-up, or at, the NPT Review Conference, no matter what the formal outcome of the conference (or lack of any formal outcome), would be helpful.
Simply putting ones head between ones hands and hoping for better times, as seems to be the current posture, seems unlikely to lead to a better outcome and is more likely to allow the parties who are rocking the boat of global nuclear security and catastrophic risk to rock it into catastrophe.
There are initiatives that the Government could take that would be helpful, and the NGO community has been presenting the Government with them for years. Promises have been made, but not fulfilled. Those promises urgently need to be fulfilled.
Note that all of these risk reduction and disarmament initiatives reinforce and complement each other. They are in no way in competition. Ideally the Government should be doing every single one of them.
They are of course:
--Signature and ratification of the TPNW. Australia is already an observer at TPNW EIF meetings. There is really no reason other than reluctance to offend powerful allies who anyway will take offence at something else – not to proceed with signature and ratification. Of course the NPT Review Conf is not necessary to do this, but would be a perfect venue to announce it.
Everything we have seen thus far suggests the Government would be highly reluctant to do this. However we would be delighted to have this guesstimate proven wrong.
--Promotion of any one, or all, of a large number of commonsense nuclear risk reduction measures headed by No First Use but also including de-alerting (Australia supported the de-alerting groups 'operational readiness of nuclear weapon systems' resolution for a number of years). Also included are measures to improve or resume mil-to-mil communication during a nuclear crisis, and a number of lesser measures to bring temperatures down during nuclear crises.
No First Use was, and is, an important part of a joint appeal authored by some of us in the NGO community, and initially presented at First Committee last December with over 1800 signatures. With even more signatures it will again be presented by NGOs at the upcoming NPT Review Conference.
[https://www.nuclearabolitionday.org/joint-letter ]
No First Use is maybe the 'low-hanging fruit' of nuclear risk reduction measures, while it is in itself a powerful measure to avoid an accidental (or deliberate) apocalypse. In a world in which repeated nuclear threats are being made, agreement not to fire first means, logically, that no one can fire. Such postures, either unilateral or between two countries, could mean the difference between having a nuclear exchange and ending civilisation, or not doing so. Evidently not doing so is better for all concerned!
It seems that DFAT has concluded that the current fraught geopolitical situation is 'not the right time' for any creative and positive disarmament or risk reduction initiatives. Yet it is precisely in such times that creative and positive initiatives such as NFU (or signature of the TPNW – or whatever positive and useful risk reduction measures or set of measures Australia can come up with) – are most sorely needed. If Australia takes a proactive disarmament/risk reduction posture at the upcoming NPT Revconf and follows it up with action at, say, the coming (Oct-December 2026) First Committee, Australia will have shown leadership in a world where that is sorely lacking.
People for Nuclear Disarmament NSW (PND-NSW), Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND), The Human Survival Project, and a number of other groups are currently coordinating a webinar involving former foreign minister Gareth Evans, a number of representatives of NGOs and think tanks and parliamentarians, on 7 April at 4pm.
A flyer is enclosed.
John Hallam
Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner, People for Nuclear Disarmament
Human Survival Project
Convenor, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament Australia
Prof. Frank Hutchinson (emerit)
Human Survival Project
Colin Mitchell, member, Labor Party