Australia has taken a lone stand as the only country in its neighbourhood to boycott negotiations for a new global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
Talks expected to include up to 120 nations are to get underway in New York on Monday, yet the Turnbull government has decided Australia will not participate in drafting the new treaty.
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Labor has described the government's position as "astonishing" and will on Monday push for a Senate motion to urge Australia to join the negotiations.
The decision to boycott the talks comes despite growing regional concern about North Korea's drive to equip missiles with a nuclear warhead, raising fears the existing nuclear safeguards under international law are fraying.
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"This is the first chance we've had in more than 50 years for any legal prohibition," said Richard Tanter, chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea are prominent among the regional countries that have agreed to the push to outlaw nuclear weapons.
Agreement was struck to begin negotiations after a vote in the United Nations General Assembly in December.
But Australia sided with nuclear-armed nations – including its US ally – to oppose the new treaty.
"Australia is committed to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, pursued in an effective, determined and pragmatic way," said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs department.
The spokeswoman said negotiating a ban without the participation of countries possessing nuclear weapons – "or without due regard for the international security environment" – would not help the goal of reductions in nuclear arsenals.
"Australia will continue to push hard for the practical steps and political will needed to bring about a world without nuclear weapons," the spokeswoman said.
Tasmanian ALP Senator Lisa Singh said Australia had been left in a minority on the biggest humanitarian issue facing the world.
"It is incredibly short sighted for Australia to refuse a seat at the table," Senator Singh said.
The Senate motion, sponsored by Senator Singh, states there are presently close to 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world, "posing a grave threat to all humanity".
It says nuclear weapons are the only weapons of mass destruction not expressly prohibited under international law.
Australia was an active player in conventions outlawing chemical and biological weapons, as well as a treaty banning landmines.
Dr Tanter said the treaty would help pressure nuclear-armed nations and offered Australia a chance to escape the "absurd trap" of relying on American deterrence when there was no credible nuclear threat to Australia.
He said New Zealand's example – having fallen out with its US ally in the 1980s, but now once more closely entwined – showed Australia could take a different approach to Washington.
"The weapons won't disappear overnight, there will be a huge amount of work to be done," Dr Tanter said.