Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

We have to live in the present. We know that India is a major and rapidly growing emitter of greenhouse gases. It really beggars belief and defies any conventional wisdom when people say that nuclear power is not part of the solution. We have maintained as a government for months now that the consideration of nuclear power has to be part of the solution.

India is the largest democracy in the world and is certainly an influential regional power and an important potential strategic partner for Australia. This government has come to the view that it does not make much sense to be exporting uranium to China and not to India. Supplying uranium, if it can be arranged, for peaceful purposes, and policed for peaceful purposes, and if proper safeguards are put in place—these are all contingent conditions under which this government would consider exporting uranium to India—is something that we think is consistent with Australia’s interests. It is certainly consistent with the broader global interests of how to handle the fact that we have one of the largest, if not the largest, stocks of uranium in the world.

I think it is entirely inappropriate to be anticipating India breaking moratoriums on testing or diverting Australian uranium to non-safeguarded facilities. If we are to export to India we can control the way in which it is supplied. We can certainly control the way in which it is used. We do consider that, in all those circumstances, and the use for peaceful purposes, it is entirely consistent with our own domestic interests and the broader interests of the non-proliferation treaty.