The Cautious Nuclear Approach of Australia’s New Prime Minister

Over the course of 19 of the last 26 years in Australia, the conservative Liberal Party have been at the forefront in defining and cultivating the position of Australia foreign policy and its broader approaches to global security. Not surprisingly, it has been in the nuclear domain that this lengthy tenure in office has had a significant impact. While Liberal leaders have generally maintained positions advocating irreversible reductions in the numbers of nuclear weapons held by all nuclear-annexed states and adhered to Australia’s participation in the NPT, there has been somewhat veiled paradoxical approach. In this regard, Australian has not forthrightly challenged the purposes and value of nuclear weapons, questioned the legality and legitimacy of such weapons, nor the logic and practice of nuclear deterrence. Notwithstanding recent developments pertaining to the AUKUS pact, Australia has predominantly left nuclear agency in the hands of the possessor states, compliantly accepting that they can safely manage nuclear risks by appropriate adjustments to warhead numbers, nuclear doctrines and force postures. With the election of Albany Albanese as Prime Minister of Australia in May 2022, Australia looked poised to move away from this hedging and somewhat pedestrian position to one that would embolden its non-proliferation efforts and redevise concrete steps toward disarmament. However, despite making bold proclamations in opposition, the Albanese government’s position across 2022 indicates that any notion of moving toward a more progressive disposition on arms control and non-proliferation will be slow and very cautious. In an attempt to assess just where the Albanese nuclear approach is situated, this article will assess the transition thus far in the context of its position to the of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and Australia’s controversial signing to the Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS) pact in 2021.