Australia rejects its own Commission’s call for nuclear disarmament

Mr Smith rejected a key finding of the joint Australia/Japan-sponsored report delivered in December – one that called for reducing the total number of nuclear weapons to 2000 warheads by 2025………

Curb urged on Iranian nukes The Age DANIEL FLITTON, May 5, 2010 AUSTRALIA hit out at Iran’s nuclear ambitions yesterday, backing a chorus of Western countries warning Tehran must be stopped from building an atomic weapon.

But the federal government itself came under fire on nuclear issues, accused of a ”shallow” response to its own multimillion-dollar investigation into nuclear threats……But on general cuts to the world’s nuclear stockpiles, Mr Smith rejected a key finding of the joint Australia/Japan-sponsored report delivered in December – one that called for reducing the total number of nuclear weapons to 2000 warheads by 2025………

anti-nuclear campaigners and the federal opposition yesterday criticised the government’s response, saying a four-page press release was a disappointing way to recognise the 294-page document, known as the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Report…..

Tilman Ruff, a consultant to the report and Australian chairman of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said the response gave no specific backing on how Australia supported the work of the commission in the future.

The report’s recommendation to establish a global centre on nuclear non-proliferation was not considered, he said. Curb urged on Iranian nukes