Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present a petition from members of the Scoresby Uniting Church and other Uniting Church congregations in my electorate. They have collected 2,194 signatures on a petition calling for the banning of cluster bombs. The petition reads:

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament:

The petition of certain Australians draws to the attention of the House:

That unexploded cluster submunitions disproportionately kill and maim civilians, including a high percentage of children, delay relief efforts in post-conflict countries as well as disrupting long-term development, and continue to kill and maim long after they are deployed and the conflict has ended. We note that Australia does not possess cluster munitions and does not use them.

Your petitioners therefore ask the House to:

legislate a ban on the production, transfer, stockpiling and use of cluster munition that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

Pass a motion supporting the Oslo Declaration committing Australians to working towards an international treaty that would ban the production, transfer, stockpiling and use of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians globally.

Members of the Scoresby Uniting Church and others came to my office personally to deliver the petition. Over 20 people were crammed into my very small office in Box Hill. They are very passionate about this issue and they are very concerned about Australia’s involvement in the current negotiations in Dublin. They expressed two concerns about the position that Australia is taking and forcefully presented their argument. Their first concern is about the degree to which Australia will seek to weaken the treaty to allow troops of state parties to directly and indirectly assist with the use, transfer and stockpiling of banned cluster munitions by non-state parties to the treaty. Their second concern is about the Australian government seeking a clause in the treaty to allow state parties to retain an unlimited number of cluster munitions for the purposes of training and research—expressed as ‘the minimum necessary for such purposes’. Numerous people have sent me letters of concern about the current negotiations.

I am pleased that the Australian government is heavily involved in the current process in Dublin. The government believes that the time has come for the international community to address the impact of cluster munitions. Australia is pleased to join 120 states at the Dublin conference to negotiate and agree on the text of a legally binding convention to prohibit cluster munitions, which cause unacceptable harm to civilians. These weapons are vile and the harm they cause is unacceptable. We should be doing everything in our power to ban them, to protect human lives and to ensure there are no unintended casualties. It is not just about those who are caught up in the conflict at the time; it is about the ones who are left behind. Australia has committed additional funds to demining, particularly within Afghanistan and also in our own region. I warmly congratulate those who collected signatures for the petition.