Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Criminal Code Amendment (Cluster Munitions Prohibition) Bill 2010. This bill ratifies the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which Australia signed on 3 December 2008. Such a convention, and its implementation across the globe, are well overdue. Under the convention, a cluster munition is defined as a conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions. In reality, cluster munitions are canisters dropped by aircraft and open in midair, scattering numerous small explosive devices over huge distances. Their use in areas inhabited by civilians usually results in large numbers of civilian injuries and deaths, and hinders development by making areas of agricultural land inaccessible and generally limiting movement.

I strongly believe that the use of cluster munitions is reprehensible. Their military utility in preventing the movement of troops pales in comparison to the devastating effect they have on civilian populations. The casualties of cluster munitions are indiscriminate, and the victims are disproportionately innocent people caught up in and around conflict zones. Cluster munitions continue to cause untold pain and tragedy in theatres of war in which open conflict has long since ended. The persistence of bomblets and munition remnants long after deployment has ended makes the effects and legacy of war almost impossible to leave behind.

The effects are seen in our own neighbourhood. Between 1964 and 1973, over 260 million munitions were dropped on Laos, comprising over two million tonnes of ordnance. Of those, around 80 million munitions failed to explode, resulting in approximately 300 new casualties from unexploded ordnance each year. Despite constant efforts by a number of government and non-government organisations in Laos, the vast majority of those munitions remain; many undocumented, many undiscovered. They are often discovered too late, when children dig them up, lured by the shiny, toy-like appearance of the small bomblets, or when they are unearthed in land clearing or ploughing on farmland. This is something I discussed last week with a delegation of parliamentarians from Laos who joined us here in our parliament. It is one of the main issues that are still in discussion: how to have that ongoing use of agricultural land in Laos but at the same time ensure the safety of their people when so many cluster munitions remain under the ground. The story of one young Laotian man speaks very much to the circumstances of thousands of families across Laos. He said:

We were walking down the road on the way to the school when my friend saw a small bulb. He didn't know what it was. He picked it up and passed it to me. I didn't know that it was a bomblet. I took it from him and tried to open it to see what it was. It detonated immediately. My friends ran back to our village to get help, and left me where I was, unconscious.

After I don't know how long, my family arrived. They put me in a car and took me to the Vientiane Province hospital in Louksambouk. I woke there, fourteen hours later.

Eventually, the doctors amputated both my hands, because they had been so severely injured in the accident. My eyes were injured also. At first I could not see at all, but within time, fifty per cent of my eyesight returned, only to deteriorate again. Now I am blind.

I spent one and a half months at the hospital. My family had to sell two buffalo for 120,000 kip, borrow 6,000,000 kip and use their entire life savings (about 16,000,000 kip) to pay for my medical care.

Phongsavath Manithong is now a Ban Advocate for Handicap International, where his story is recorded. Phongsavath's accident occurred on his 16th birthday, robbing him of the life he had expected. This young man has turned his tragedy to advocacy, though, becoming a champion for the abolition of cluster munitions. But many victims do not survive their encounters with bomblets; still others do not have the capacity or support to rebuild their lives after the carnage that has been brought upon them.

Further afield, cluster munitions were used by the Russian Federation in their 2008 conflict with Georgia over South Ossetia. That conflict lasted just a single week, but of course munitions cannot heed the call to stand down. Those weapons ensure that war continues to be waged well into peacetime. In 2006, the month-long conflict between Israel and Lebanon saw no less than four million cluster munitions dropped into southern Lebanon, resulting in 654 casualties up to December 2011; one in five of which have been children. And, most recently, in only the past few weeks, Human Rights Watch has been able to confirm that the Assad regime has employed cluster munitions against Syrian civilians in Jabal Shahshabu. There should be no doubting that, more than any other conventional armament, these are weapons of ill-conscience. That is why the cluster munitions convention is so important: to prevent future tragedies and future casualties of these terrible weapons.

This bill is designed to give effect to the convention under Australian law, introducing criminal offences relating to the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention and transfer of cluster munitions, as specified in the convention. I regard the bill as a starting point for Australia's support for the goal of ending the use of cluster munitions, complemented by diplomatic efforts and our international aid program.

I do want to recognise the role of civil society in pushing for both the convention and the strongest form of legislation to prevent the use of cluster munitions. I have received representations from individuals and groups from across the country, all of whom are driven to their advocacy in order to prevent damage to the most vulnerable people caught up in war zones. I especially want to recognise the Cluster Munition Coalition of Australia and their members, including the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Soroptimist International UK programme Action Committee and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, who have all endeavoured to make me aware of the complexities of the cluster munitions and disarmament issues.

As a number of those non-government organisations have noted, this bill also includes defences for a range of conduct permitted under the convention to allow Australia to continue to work with our allies, and to train in the detection and disarmament of cluster munitions. These defences are designed to protect Australian soldiers from prosecution for inadvertent assistance with cluster munitions when deployed with the forces of nonparties to the convention. These defences are not designed to enable Australian forces to actively participate or assist with the use of cluster munitions, and the legal prohibition on Australian forces making the decision to use cluster munitions will definitely remain.

Moreover, Australian Defence Force doctrine, procedures, rules and directives, which are properly not included in this legislative process, will reflect the notion that Australian forces should not be involved in operations involving cluster munitions. Indeed, this notion must be, and is, reflected across the government's priorities in ways that are not restricted to the ratification of this convention in law. The Australian government's investment fund, the Future Fund, has divested itself of holdings in 10 companies related to the production of cluster munitions. As a matter of foreign policy the Australian government will continue to urge foreign governments, especially our partners in the United States, not to use cluster munitions and to accede to this convention. As part of our effort towards cluster munitions disarmament, Australia has already committed $100 million of support to countries affected by landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war under the Mine action strategy for the Australian aid program 2010-2014.

As well as working with partners across the world, including institutions across the UN system, Australia has been a committee donor to partner governments in 16 affected countries in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. These include places like the Kingdom of Cambodia, where Australia is also helping to implement the National plan of action for persons with disabilities, including landmine/ERW survivors, and Afghanistan, where the number of people falling victim to landmines thankfully continues to fall.

It also includes supporting organisations like the MiVAC Trust, an organisation started by Australian veterans of the Vietnam War which trains locals, especially women, to safely clear mines from fields and helps to repair some of the damage to infrastructure brought about by war and weaponry. MiVAC receives AusAID funding but equally it receives donations of time, money and energy from the Tasmanian community, and the rest of the Australian community, for its work. Once again, it is this contribution from civil society that has kept this issue on the agenda. I am grateful that my work in the past with MiVAC, the United Nations Association of Australia, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and other organisations involved in the peace movement have brought me into contact with some of the people working closely in this area.

This bill is an important part of implementing the cluster munitions convention and bringing pressure to bear on those states which are not yet party to it. I understand the reservations of some of the community on this bill but I believe it is an important piece of legislation. I want to thank my colleagues who so vigorously pursued the non-legislative assurances the government has put in place and which I understand Senator Ludwig will outline in his second reading speech. Ultimately it is my hope that both the international and domestic framework against cluster munitions and other reckless armaments can be strengthened, and that all nations will share our view that cluster munitions should not form part of the arsenal of any defence force that is conscious of its impact on civilians and international law. I commend the bill to the Senate.