Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike Senator Kemp, I will do my best not to misrepresent others in this debate. Senator Kemp is somewhat sadly mistaken, I think: Labor is not divided when it comes to the issue of selling uranium to India; we are at one. We had an interesting debate within our party about the future of uranium mining and we now have an agreed platform. We have an open and public process. We have a lively debate and we form a view, unlike those opposite who just do what their Prime Minister tells them to.

Senator Payne made an interesting contribution earlier, talking about the importance of Australia’s relationship with India. Indeed, it is of growing importance and a relationship that all of us in this place should probably spend more time contemplating. However, even more important are our responsibilities as a nation when it comes to being an exporter of uranium. Therefore I, like Senator Evans, have absolutely no problem with supporting, in particular, part (a) of Senator Allison’s motion and, indeed, the sentiments expressed in the rest of the motion.

If anyone is confused about the conditions under which uranium and nuclear power can be used, it is those opposite. You only have to look at the way they choose to treat two different nations: India and Iran. There is deep and significant confusion and division there.

Not only the shadow minister for foreign affairs, Mr McClelland, but also all of the media have pointed out the problems the federal government has with its contemplation of selling uranium to India. Mr McClelland has been on the record as saying that the federal government is pretty much into unrestrained promotion of nuclear power and that this is a cause of great concern, especially when it comes to the government’s poor record in the area of nuclear nonproliferation.

I notice that there are a whole lot of new strict conditions—not a strict condition that says you have to sign up to the NPT but a whole lot of other strict conditions that we may or may not be aware of. Instead of trying to work out a way of coming up with strict conditions under which to sell uranium to India, which the foreign minister has been trying to do, he should be joining us on this side in campaigning for wide-ranging reform and strengthening of the nonproliferation treaty. And then he should encourage India to join it.

It is important that we place on record here that the NPT allows the development of the nuclear energy industry, provided that countries do not build nuclear weapons. India, of course, has tested nuclear weapons, to our knowledge, in 1974 and 1998. India joins Pakistan, North Korea and Israel as the only four countries that have not signed the NPT.

So the government is going to contemplate selling uranium to India, and we are going to look at some nefarious ‘strict conditions’ that do not include signing up to the NPT. This is the same government that wanted to use the NPT to quite justifiably deal with the challenges that we were confronting with Iran. Well, you cannot opt in and opt out of an NPT. You cannot say that it is really important that Iran has to be a signatory and they have to obey it but that it is okay for us to sell uranium to India, which refused to sign it and which is on record as testing nuclear weapons. You cannot have it both ways—you either believe in the NPT and you want it enforced universally or you do not. You cannot play sneaky games with the United States about who is good and who is bad and opt in and opt out of the NPT. You cannot do that and be a responsible exporter of uranium.

What you also cannot do is go and seek legal advice—which the government did confirm at estimates hearings it was getting; I know because I was there with Senator Evans—about overriding the states when it comes to nuclear power and enforce nuclear power and uranium mining on them, yet, at the same time, override state governments and say they cannot have wind farms. Well, who cares about the environmental future of this nation and the energy sustainability of this nation? You cannot do that. You cannot have it both ways. Just as you cannot opt in and opt out of the NPT, you cannot pick and choose when you are going to override people— (Time expired)