Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Hansard source

One of the points of the motion moved by the member for Fremantle says:

... provide a pause for reflection by the international community on the threats and challenges we face;

Some of the threats and challenges that we face are in some of the horrific weapons of war which people have a potential to use. I want to speak briefly today on the issue of cluster bombs. They are horrific weapons which cause as much, or even more, damage to civilians, particularly kids, as to soldiers involved in conflict or war—to the degree that, in the face of the horror and suffering caused by the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon and Afghanistan, many international peace motivated organisations are now coming together more and more strongly and calling with louder and more unified voices for an end to the use of cluster bombs. More than 50 international organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Mennonite Central Committee, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, are now calling for a cessation of the use of cluster bombs.

They are joined in Australia by organisations like the MiVAC Trust. MiVAC was launched in Australia in March 2002 and is a non-profit, non-political and non-sectarian charity. It is the initiative of former soldiers who served in Vietnam who saw firsthand the results of landmine explosions and were aware of the trauma for civilians who lived and worked close to minefields as well as the danger to their fellow soldiers, including mine clearance teams.

MiVAC initially appealed to Tasmanian Vietnam veterans, but it now has members from many fields and all political persuasions. Although members have undertaken to promote landmine awareness, MiVAC is primarily a fundraising body that raises funds to assist landmine survivors. My congratulations go to Rob Woolley and Gill Paxton for the work they are doing. They have called for a rethink of the use of cluster bombs.

Cluster bombs are dropped in big canisters. They are an imprecise weapon. They are usually dropped when civilians are not around. These big canisters fall from the sky, where, at a certain height, they open up and smaller, deadly bombs the size of hand grenades fall and cover many acres of ground. Of course, there is a failure rate. Sometimes this failure rate is estimated to be as high as 20 or 30 per cent. Those smaller bombs often lie in the ground for months or years, sometimes hidden and sometimes not, and they kill, wound, maim and injure many civilians, particularly children. I think it has been highlighted that in Afghanistan bombs that have fallen have become particularly attractive items for kids because in colour and in size they are so like the food aid parcels that are dropped to feed starving children. These are a horrific weapon of war.

There is a big movement today of non-government organisations that have joined together to call on nations of the world to do away with the use of cluster bombs. I know the Australian Senate has debated this issue, and parliaments in countries like Denmark and Norway, and the European Parliament, have all addressed their attention to how these bombs might be banned in the future.

I think on a day when we consider peace all around the world, on a day when this parliament considers a motion moved by the member for Fremantle and on a day when we give thought to those horrific events that occurred in America just a few years ago, we should also give some thought to the suffering of civilians around the world. (Time expired)

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