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Around 50 people attended a rally held at Geelong Trades Hall on Friday evening to commemorate Hiroshima Day.

The rally was initiated by the Southwest Victoria section of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network.

Sarah Mansfield, Victorian Greens member of the Victorian Legislative Council, representing the Western Victoria Region, said "peace is fundamental to growing stronger communities".

"The government should be investing in building a safe and peaceful future for Australia and our region - making sure people have what they need. All the basic things that they need to live day to day."

"Instead, we've got a government spending literally billions and billions of dollars on nuclear submarines."

"This could [instead] be spent on fixing the housing crisis. They're having an argument about not wanting to spend $500 million dollars a year, starting in a few years time, on maybe building a few houses when they're spending literally billions of dollars on submarines."

"We could fully fund public schools. We could get dental and mental health care into MediCare. We could make TAFE and university free. We could raise the wages of essential workers, and we could seriously invest in tackling the climate crisis."

"Instead, we get eight submarines. Maybe, if we manage to build them. Eight submarines."

Hear Mansfield's and others speeches in the video above.