10th Oct 2006, 3:42 PM – Senate Motions — Nuclear Nonproliferation — Against Australia becoming a nuclear fuel supply centre and against sale of uranium to India

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Greens Senator Christine Milne, which means that it was rejected. The motion was:

That the Senate-

(a) condemns North Korea’s nuclear weapons test;

(b) notes:

(i) the increasing threat of nuclear conflict globally,

(ii) that International Atomic Energy Agency statistics reveal that there have been 300 seizures of smuggled radioactive material capable of making a ‘dirty’ bomb since 2002 and that the rate of seizures has doubled since this time,

(iii) the call from Al Qaeda’s chief in Iraq for nuclear scientists and explosives experts to join his Jihad against the West, and his comment that American bases in Iraq are good places to test unconventional weapons, and

(iv) that the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) has undermined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by expressing a willingness to consider the sale of uranium to India, which is not a signatory to the Treaty and which, together with Pakistan, staged the last nuclear break-out in 1998; and

(c) calls on the Government to:

(i) dismantle the Prime Minister’s Taskforce conducting the Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review,

(ii) reject any proposition by the United States of America about Australia becoming a nuclear fuel supply centre under President George W Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, and

(iii) abandon its support for the sale of uranium to India.