Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate an additional answer to a question taken on notice from Senator Ludlam on 12 October 2011 concerning Olympic Dam.

Leave granted

The answer read as follows—

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (14:27): Mr President, I will persist and ask a further supplementary question. I ask whether or not the minister will   confirm that this approval pre-empts that which is not yet sanctioned under Australia's bilateral uranium sales agreement with China and that it will require a future nuclear treaty with China, yet to be negotiated with China or put to this parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties inquiry and thereafter to this parliament, that may not even be realised?

The Office of the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has referred this matter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs has provided the following answer to the Honourable Senator's question.

Answer

The Minister for the Environment's approval of the proposed Olympic Dam expansion has been made under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The operation of Australia's bilateral safeguards agreements, including those with China, is a separate matter.

The Australia-China Nuclear Material Transfer Agreement is designed primarily for transfers of uranium ore concentrates (i.e. yellowcake), not for copper concentrates containing trace quantities of uranium. Should extraction of uranium be undertaken in China from the Australian-sourced copper concentrates, the Agreement would most likely need to be amended to ensure the uranium recovered would be subject to the same strict safeguards requirements as other Australian uranium exports to China.