Dear Mrs Irwin

Thank you for your letter of 17 March 2008 concerning a petition on anti-vehicle mines.

Australia supports a global restriction on anti-vehicle mines that cannot be detected by commonly available mine detection equipment, and those remotely deployable anti-vehicle mines that are not engineered to self-destruct and self-deactivate within a set time frame. Australia does not support a total global ban on anti-vehicle mines.

The Australian Government also supports a ban on mines that are designed specifically to explode by the presence, proximity or contact of a person.

I trust this information will be of assistance to you.

from the Minister for Defence, Mr Fitzgibbon, to a petition presented on 19 March by The Speaker (from 104 citizens)