Members of Australia's oldest peace organisation, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, are visiting Mount Isa City Council to campaign for council to sign an appeal letter.
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Valerie Joy and Delene Cuddihy are from the Queensland Branch of WILPF based in Brisbane and they are travelling through rural Queensland to raise awareness of a new initiative from the majority of countries in the world to ban nuclear weapons.
WILPF has been working towards peaceful resolution of international conflicts since it was founded in 1915 and the organisation was instrumental in helping to defeat the referendum to impose compulsory conscription of Australian men to fight overseas in World War I in 1916.
WILPF member and second woman in the Federal Parliament, Dorothy Blackburn, chaired the first Ban the Bomb meeting in Melbourne in 1946 after the devastation of the citizens of the cities of HIroshima and Nagasaki.
Dorothy was the only member of Parliament to speak against the government's Defence Projects Protection Act which imposed heavy penalties for public criticism of these projects.
WILPF are working with the Australian founded organisation International Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons, who have initiated a campaign at the United Nations which has seen the majority of the world's countries impose a Total Nuclear Weapons Treaty Ban.
ICAN were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2107 for this initiative and this Nobel Peace Medal is located in Australia and is available to any local councils which sign an Appeal Letter to the Federal Government to sign the Total Nuclear Weapons Ban at the UN.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
