[Greens-Media] Message to Rudd from 100 A-Bomb Survivors ? Take Leadership to End Nuclear Age

[Hill, Felicity (Sen S. Ludlam)]

Monday 29 December 2008      

PRESS CONFERENCE       PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Message to Rudd from 100 A-Bomb Survivors – Take Leadership to End Nuclear Age 

More than 100 Hibakusha - survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks - arrive in Sydney on the Peace Boat today, Monday 29 December. 

Peace Boat is an ocean liner with 1,000 passengers that have travelled to 20 countries to promote the vision of a nuclear weapon free future.  Australian Greens nuclear spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam joined the voyage in Auckland. 

"The arrival of the Peace Boat is an opportunity for Kevin Rudd to reconsider the role of nuclear weapons in our security policy," said Senator Ludlam.

"The Hibakusha have a detailed letter they wish to deliver to the Prime Minister at Kirribili House," he said.   

"The Hibakusha have high expectations of our Prime Minister because he was the first serving Western head of state to visit Hiroshima.  Soon after, he initiated the joint Australia-Japan Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament to be chaired by former Foreign Ministers Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi."   

"All countries – not only the 9 with weapons – have a stake and a role to play in a nuclear weapon free world," continued Senator Ludlam.

"In 22 days our ally the United States will be led by Barack Obama, the first person to put nuclear abolition on the agenda of a US Presidential race. 

"As Obama reverses the Bush regime's effort to upgrade the US nuclear arsenal, Australia should signal an intention to take nuclear weapons out of our alliance.  We can show the US how to remove reliance on nuclear weapons by taking them out of our security policy," Senator Ludlam continued.    

Jillian Marsh of the Adnyamathnha people will be attending the Peace Boat Day events in Sydney to remind participants of where nuclear weapons begin: uranium mining.  Winner of this year’s Nuclear Free Future Award for her work against the Beverley Uranium Mine, Jillian is travelling from her country in South Australia to meet the Hibakusha, "I want our story to be told, the way we as Indigenous Australians experience the social and environmental impacts from uranium mining and the nuclear industry."

"These remarkable survivors truly understand the devastation of these hideous weapons.  Their message must be heard," Senator Ludlam concluded. 


** Press conference 	11 am, Terminal, Wharf 8, Darling Harbour – free parking available

** Public Meeting 	2.30 – 5pm, Mori Gallery 168 Day Street, Sydney

For more information: Felicity Hill 0417 174 302