At an ordinary meeting on Tuesday April 28, Cr Annette Alldrick and Cr Bob Proudfoot submitted a motion that recommended Shoalhaven City council join 34 other local governments in endorsing the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 'Cities Appeal'.

Council will now write to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne to request the Australian Government sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

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On 24 October 2020, the international treaty received its 50th ratification, triggering its entry into force, banning nuclear weapons on 22 January 2021.

Australia has not joined the treaty but 88 federal parliamentarians from all parties have pledged to work toward ratifying it and the federal labor party has committed in policy to doing so if they are voted in.

The nuclear ban treaty prohibits nations from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons or allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory.

The council was joined by Gem Romuld, Australian Director of ICAN - a coalition of non-governmnetal organisations in one hundred countries promoting adherence to the treaty.

ICAN received the 2017 nobel peace prize - the first Australian founded organisation to do so.

In Ms Romuld's deputation to council, the Wollongong resident urged council to sign up.

"Nuclear weapons are never an acceptable means of defence and that's why cities and towns are joining the call because cities should never be nuclear targets," she said.

She said opinion polls demonstrate between 70 and 80 per cent of the public are on board.

Cr Proudfoot said the Shoalhaven, Australian and international community support the treaty.

"What this does is put the politicians around the world on notice. It says to Russia and the United States that you better start talking about this," he said.

But Cr Andrew Guile believed signing up to the appeal would be outside the normal scope of work of a local council.

More than 1600 cities and towns worldwide have endorsed the appeal including LA, Washington DC, Paris and Berlin. In Australia, 34 councils have joined the appeal, including Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong and most recently Mount Isa.