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

The Australian government is not embarking on a process of trying to normalise or sanitise the production and deployment of these weapons. In supporting the convention, we are not saying that there is a reasonable and an unreasonable extent to which these weapons can be used or deployed. Australia is making its position plain. We support the convention. We support the articles of the convention and the obligations therein. So, no, I do not think it is unusual that we have not negotiated or discussed with the United States its plans in this area. As I say, I will take it on notice. Perhaps that has happened at official level. I am not aware of it. Obviously what we are striving for—what I think all of us are striving for here—is to establish an international norm where the use of these weapons by anyone is unacceptable. Obviously the United States, like the other powers that I have referred to, has to weigh those judgments, and it obviously is doing that. But the Australian position is very plain: we support the convention. We are not going to embark on a process of trying to say there are good cluster munitions and bad cluster munitions. We support the convention.