Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia—Co-Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (12:10): I ask that general business notice of motion No. 693, which relates to nuclear weapons abolition, be taken as a formal motion. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Is there any objection to this motion being taken as formal? Senator Fifield: Yes. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: There is an objection. Senator LUDLAM: That is disgraceful. I seek leave to make a brief statement. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator LUDLAM: I can save the government and opposition whips the opportunity of reading into the record a condescending statement about how this is a complex foreign policy matter. I presume that that is the reason that the Senate is not even going to be able to express a view on this matter. The motion effectively goes to the fact that Australia, together with 155 other states, participated in the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons on 8 and 9 December last year. Eighty-five nations have signed that pledge, and this is about nuclear weapons abolition—weapons that have no strategic military utility but would have a massive humanitarian impact were they ever used. Eighty-five countries have signed that pledge. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who has— Senator Whish-Wilson: I rise on a point of order, Mr Deputy President. I cannot hear Senator Ludlam, there is so much talking going on in the chamber. Can you please bring the chamber to order. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I accept your point of order. There is too much noise in the chamber and the Senate will come to order. Senator LUDLAM: Mr Fraser said, in 2009: There has never been a better time to achieve total nuclear disarmament; this is necessary, feasible and increasingly urgent. We are at the crossroads of a crisis involving these worst weapons of terror, presenting both danger and opportunity.