Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Less than three months ago the federal Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane, said that Australia will not sell uranium to India until India signs the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Today in this chamber we have government senators’ responses to questions telling us that it is not necessary for India to sign the NPT for Australia to sell uranium to it. Minister Macfarlane spoke to the Age newspaper about the sale of uranium to India in May this year. The article said:

“The answer is no,” Mr Macfarlane said. “The Australian uranium industry can prosper without India, that’s my answer.

“We have a prohibition on the basis they have not signed the NPT.”

But it does not end there. The article goes on to say:

Asked about the contradiction with Mr Howard’s comments over uranium sales to India, Mr Macfarlane said he was simply stating the Government’s policy. “There has certainly been no discussion with me, and I’m the guy who signs the export permits, about the potential to supply India,” he said.

We are three months down the track and we have Mr Downer telling us that selling uranium to India without its signing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty would make the world safer, because its nuclear plant would be subject to international inspections for the first time. According to today’s Age newspaper, Mr Downer also said that there was no way that uranium could be used for military purposes. But the question really is: what level of safety and what level of assurances would we have about the uranium from Australia going to a country that has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty? India’s chief scientific adviser has his own views about this. In an interview in the Hindu newspaper he is quoted as saying:

Whatever reactors we put under safeguards will be decided at India’s discretion.

He went on to say:

We are not firewalling between the civil and military programs in terms of manpower or personnel. That’s not on.

The foreign minister does not ‘think there is a risk’. But how can we be sure? Is it a risk we really want to take?

The development by the Howard government of a shift in Australia’s policy from no sale of uranium to countries that have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a policy that to date has served us well, to the possible sale of uranium to countries outside of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty will not be a decision welcomed by the Australian people. India is a nation that will not rule out nuclear testing and it will not put its name to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Labor believes that selling uranium to a country that will not sign onto the NPT is not only a risk we do not want or need to take but also a move that will undermine the delicate nuclear non-proliferation regime. Labor believes Australia has an obligation to make sure the International Atomic Energy Agency fulfils its role through the non-proliferation treaty. Yesterday, Mr Rudd said:

Nuclear weapons proliferation is not a laughing matter, it’s a serious matter ... And it is a very bad development indeed when we have the possibility of the Government of Australia stepping outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty and saying it’s OK to sell uranium to a country which isn’t a signatory to the NPT. This is a significant breach from the consensus of Australian governments in the past and I believe sends a bad message to the international community.

By committing to uranium sales to India, Australia would also be forced to cross its collective fingers that none of this nuclear material falls into the wrong hands. Pakistan cricketer Imran Khan has said that the Howard government’s decision to sell uranium to India will now spark a new arms race on the subcontinent. He told SBS television that Australia’s decision to export uranium would encourage generals in his country to spend more on weapons to counter India’s access to nuclear fuel.

Nuclear power is not the answer. It is not the answer to Australia’s future energy needs either. It will be at least 2020 before nuclear—(Time expired)