Labor is facing pressure to sign and ratify an international treaty banning nuclear weapons, with rank-and-file members worried new submarines are a risk to the party’s longstanding anti-nuclear platform.
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons director Gem Romuld said there would be a renewed push at this week’s national Labor conference after the party outlined a pathway to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.
“Labor’s position on non-proliferation is under threat,” she told AAP.
The government has strenuously denied that the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines breached any of Australia’s non-proliferation commitments and emphatically rejected that the plan under the AUKUS agreement would lead to nuclear weapons.
Ms. Romuld said it was important Labor now put its money where its mouth is, saying that signing the treaty would put in place legal protections and bind future governments.
“Many see it as a balancing out of what they may have to accept within the party given the AUKUS and nuclear submarine proposals,” she said.
While contentious motions usually don’t make it to the floor of the conference to be voted on and are instead resolved behind closed doors, the motion is expected to be largely similar to previous ones passed.
The policy was introduced in 2018, while Labor was in opposition and reaffirmed in 2021, with the party pledging to sign and ratify the treaty if it formed government.
But the resolutions attach a number of caveats, including that effective verification and enforcement mechanisms be in place and that there is a pathway to achieve universal support for the ban.
Ms. Romuld said she saw no appetite to water down the commitment and was confident it would be reaffirmed.
She said party members were looking for “reassurance on nuclear non-proliferation”.
“Reaffirming the policy to sign and ratify will be significant, especially in light of AUKUS,” Ms. Romuld said.
The Albanese government maintains it is committed to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation but has not put a timeline on signing the treaty.
A joint statement published after an AUSMIN meeting between Australian and US foreign and defence ministers in July reaffirmed a commitment from the two countries “to set the highest nuclear non-proliferation standard”.
The Australian Labor Party conference involving 402 delegates begins in Brisbane on Thursday and runs until Saturday.
