"If only 0.3% of the world's current nuclear armaments were used, it would create a nuclear winter, and the end of humanity on this planet", Dr Marianne Hanson, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Queensland, told the Brisbane Hiroshima Day rally on August 3. The rally attracted 100 people.
The rally, under the theme "Keep Australia nuclear free", also called for an end to uranium mining in Australia, and no nuclear power or nuclear waste dumps. "The world has come perilously close to nuclear annihilation over the past decades. We should continue to call for the total abolition of all nuclear weapons as a threat to life on this planet", Hanson said.
Dr Daniele Viliunas, from the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW), also spoke and a welcome to country was conducted by Aboriginal activist Sam Watson.
The Combined Unions Choir sang several anti-war and progressive songs. The rally was followed by a march around the city.
The rally was one of a series of actions around the country to commemorate Hiroshima Day on August 6 — the anniversary of the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
In Sydney, on August 2, 100 people rallied at the town hall, and heard from Jessica Morrison, the Australian director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Duncan Meerding reports from Hobart that on August 6, 40 people attended a vigil organised by the Hobart Peace Coalition. A "Target X" demonstration was also organised by medical students and members of MAPW to highlight the medical effects of a nuclear strike. An "Abolish nuclear weapons" forum was held in Hobart Town Hall on August 9, and was addressed by a number of speakers including Lord Mayor Rob Valentine, endosed by the Hobart City Council as a "mayor for peace".