The government and the opposition today voted against a Senate motion that simply noted a number of public statements.

"If the government can't even note statements made by its own Ambassadors, the Attorney General, the UN Secretary General, Gareth Evans and an article of a treaty Australia signed in 1973 we are in real trouble," said Senator Scott Ludlam, Australian Greens spokesperson on nuclear issues.

"Far from the leadership the government has promised on nuclear weapons issues, by voting against this the government undermines the global consensus, winding back the progress made when the nuclear weapon states gave an ‘unequivocal undertaking for the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals' at an historic consensus reached in 2000.

"Weakening the global consensus on nuclear weapons, and undermining the historic document agreed in 2000 was the Bush Administration's agenda.

"By indicating just how much it fails to grasp the details of the issue, the government has also failed to support President Obama's ambitious nuclear disarmament agenda which he set out in his April 2009 Prague statement.

"It remains to be seen whether the government is capable of heeding the advice provided to it by Gareth Evans to seize this moment," Senator Ludlam said.

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