David Feeney (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

A helpful interjector, that is right, Senator. I guess I should say at the outset that the government will confine itself to dealing with these issues in terms of the principles and their intent, and then, looking forward, the government would be assisted by the detail of what is transpiring case by case and obviously legal advice to inform it.

Having said that, let me then turn to how Australia will promote the principles established by the convention and work to discourage countries not party to the convention from using cluster munitions. I suppose it is fair to say that in this matter, as in so many others, Australia sees itself as promoting and seeking to promote international norms that move all of us, the whole of the international community, towards a better state. Obviously there are a number of major powers—indeed, one might say most of the major powers—that are not signatories to this convention, but not for a moment does that deter the government from its resolve to abide by the convention and to promote the international norms that it seeks to internationalise and normalise.

In dealing with our obligations under the treaty, we may discharge them in either bilateral or multilateral forums, through oral or written communications, in the conduct of the government and its work across the whole gamut of international fora aimed at dissuading or advising countries not party to the convention against using cluster munitions.