Senator Scott Ludlam resignation

Recently it was brought to my attention that I hold dual citizenship of Australia and New Zealand. Under Section 44 of the Australian constitution I am therefore ineligible to hold elected office in the Federal Parliament.

The United Nations has voted overwhelmingly to adopt a treaty banning the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The final vote of 122 to 1, with 1 abstention, leaves no doubt as to the scale of the global movement for abolition.

“Today the world stood up to the nine nuclear weapons states and their proxies, and moved to put nuclear weapons on the same legal footing as chemical and biological weapons,” said Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.

There are a handful of empty chairs in Committee Room 1 in the UN General Assembly building in New York. One of them should have been occupied by an Australian representative, but these negotiations are going ahead without us. Yesterday, the second draft of a treaty to ban nuclear weapons was circulated, despite Australia’s best efforts to prevent these talks from happening at all.