City of Port Phillip slammed for motion on abolition of nuclear weapons
Bins, parking fines and nuclear weapon bans? One Melbourne council has decided it needs to weigh in on the international nuclear disarmament issue.
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An inner-city council has been ridiculed for intervening in the international nuclear disarmament issue.
City of Port Phillip councillors have passed a Greens motion calling on the federal government to sign a UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
The council, which includes St Kilda and South Melbourne, will also ensure it doesn’t invest in companies producing nuclear weapons.
Gideon Rozner, from free enterprise think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs, said Port Phillip’s posturing was “sadly becoming a pattern of behaviour from local government across Australia”.
“No doubt other councils will come under pressure to abolish their own nuclear arsenals,” he said.
“If local councillors are more interested in defence policy than rubbish collection, perhaps they should stand for federal parliament instead.”
Marcus Pearl, a Liberal Party member and the only councillor to oppose the motion, said raising the issue at a meeting was a waste of time and money.
“We had our well-paid CEO and top five officers having to sit through this motion,” he said.
“It’s disappointing that this sort of stuff gets brought up in council, but that some other important local issues don’t get that sort of attention.”
But Port Phillip deputy mayor Louise Crawford defended the move and said the recent Chernobyl TV series was a timely reminder of the effects of radiation.
“Nuclear weapons pose an unacceptable threat to people everywhere,” she said.
“It is important to do what we can to stop this horror happening again, especially when the use of such weapons would be deliberate.”
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Greens councillor Katherine Copsey, who moved the motion, cited the efforts of Nobel Peace Prize winning group the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which started in Melbourne.
Darebin Council funded a mural at Preston Library honouring the group’s founders Dimity Hawkins and Dave Sweeney. In 2015, Moreland Council held a minute’s silence to mark the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan in World War II.