The paper that Australia presented to the conference in Vienna addressed what we considered to be gaps in safety arrangements and outlined actions to address them. These included independent fact-finding and review missions for nuclear incidents—again, to be coordinated by the IAEA; nuclear safety missions, also coordinated by the IAEA; and improved national reporting under the provisions of the Convention on Nuclear Safety. That IAEA meeting endorsed a vision for improvements in the form of a practical action plan on nuclear safety. That action plan incorporated a number of ideas advanced by Australia and our foreign minister for improving nuclear safety. Those included, firstly, the IAEA conducting fact-finding missions when nuclear accidents occur and publishing those results; secondly, an expansion of the IAEA's nuclear safety review role; and, thirdly, greater transparency by states in reporting their nuclear safety activities.

The High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Safety and Security which Senator Siewert mentioned will be convened by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, tomorrow in New York. Australia hopes that the meeting will formally endorse that action plan. Importantly, the action plan recognises that all countries have a stake in nuclear safety, whether or not they have nuclear programs of their own. (Time expired)