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

Minister, the operative part of the bill that I am referring to, section 72.42, states, as you are no doubt aware:

Section 72.38—

which is the fairly comprehensive list of things that are prohibited—

does not apply to the stockpiling, retention or transfer of a cluster munition that:

(a) is done by:

(i) a member of the armed forces of a foreign country that is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions—

for example, the US would be caught by that—

or

(ii) a person who is connected with such forces as described in subsection (2) and is neither an Australian citizen nor a resident of Australia …

So serving personnel with the US Marine Corps, for example, or their contractors, are explicitly allowed to stockpile these weapons in Australia under that section of the act. Why?