Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister. Australia and the United States are at odds in this matter, you would have to say, if you were going to put it diplomatically. We believe these weapons should be abolished and we do not believe they should be used or stockpiled by the ADF. The United States government believes—not in the abstract—that these weapons should be deployed, that they have military utility and that they intend to continue to use them and not sign up. The evidence—and I wonder whether by now, Minister, you have had a chance to take a quick look at the cables that I put on the table a short while ago—makes it abundantly evident that the Australian government is running the agenda of the United States in the negotiations. How exactly does Australia reconcile the fact that we are coming from two vastly different positions—if that is to be believed, and let us naively assume just for the moment that it is? How does the government run the agenda of the US in those negotiations when in fact our intentions are diametrically opposed?