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

The short answer is no. The Australian government view is plain: we are opposed to the use of cluster munitions, the stockpiling of cluster munitions and the deployment of cluster munitions. The view of the Australian government is plainly that these weapons are inappropriate and that there is no acceptable failure rate. I gave you the statistics reflecting the position of the United States. Has the United States explained to Australia how it intends to achieve the one per cent target? Not to my knowledge, but I will take that on notice. But it is obviously a matter for the United States. Our position is not to negotiate with the United States or discuss with the United States its plans to reduce the failure rate. I think the position of the Australian government in international forums very plainly is to call upon all of the significant weapons manufacturers and stockpilers—of course, I speak of the United States as well as Russia, China, Iran and others—to abide by the international norm of not using these weapons and of applying the convention.