Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Cluster bombs are one of the most lethal weapons used by armed forces in the world today. Cluster bombs can launch more than 2,000 smaller bombs, each of which can contain hundreds of lethal shards. While they are effective against lightly armoured vehicles, cluster bombs are most lethal against unarmoured personnel. Their use against targets where civilians are present is therefore almost certain to cause large numbers of civilian casualties. While these weapons are designed to explode on contact with the target, a large proportion fail to detonate and remain deadly for many, many years after their use. More than 300 people each year die from cluster munitions incidents in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia more than 30 years after the munitions were dropped. A similar number have died in Lebanon since Israel used US supplied cluster weapons in its attack on Lebanon in 2006.

While cluster bombs have been in use since the Second World War, their greatest use was by the United States, with thousands of tonnes of these munitions dropped on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Later large-scale use of cluster weapons includes the US and NATO deployments in Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Israeli supplied cluster munitions used by Georgia against South Ossetia in 2008.

Shocked by the barbaric use of cluster munitions and in response to the maiming and slaughter of civilians at the time of the attacks and for many years following, civilised nations of the world, including Australia, acted to ban the use of cluster munitions. The Convention on Cluster Munitions was agreed to by more than 90 countries after conferences in Oslo, Wellington and Dublin. Australia is a signatory to the convention but so far it is not one of the 14 countries to ratify the convention, which will not come into force until 30 countries ratify it. While the United States has not signed the convention, it has imposed a ban on the export of cluster munitions.

While countries using cluster weapons would argue that their use is limited to military targets, the frightening level of deaths and horrific injuries they cause when used in areas with a high concentration of civilians suggests they are part of a strategy which has more to do with political rather than military outcomes. Their use in recent conflicts has been designed to cause terror in civilian populations. By one estimate, in the last days of its invasion of Lebanon, Israel dropped more than one million cluster bombs. This tactic had little impact on the effectiveness of Lebanese forces but has left a terrible legacy for civilians in south Lebanon.

Given Australia’s support for the campaign to ban cluster bombs, it came as a shock to see that, according to the Melbourne Herald Sun, an Australian government sponsored resource kit encourages students to plan the use of cluster bombs. In the Melbourne Herald Sun of 28 May this year, concern was raised about a kit prepared for the defence department for year 9 and year 10 students. That kit includes a task requiring students to put crosses on a grid to represent the location of cluster bombs. The Herald Sun quotes the kit as saying: ‘The aim is to create maximum disruption through the strategic placement of cluster bombs.’

I took a look at the kit, and I must say that I found it to be a very informative resource which asks students to engage in the decisions faced by governments on the use of cluster munitions. It certainly does not encourage students to recklessly plan the use of cluster bombs. The kit sets out the substantial arguments in favour of a ban on cluster weapons and informs students of Australia’s status as a signatory to the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, which forbids the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs.

On Tuesday, 18 August 2009, the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, Kelvin Thomson, tabled in the parliament the committee report on the convention. It said:

The Committee is of the view that ratification of the Convention would reaffirm Australia’s commitment to limiting the impact of armed conflict on civilian populations, and will significantly improve the lives of people affected by cluster munitions.

It now remains for the government to proceed to ratify— (Time expired)