Antinuclear

Australia’s discriminates in favour of India, on uranium sales

India is not a party to the NPT, has never been, has developed a nuclear weapons capability as a non-member of the Treaty, and accordingly, is in an entirely different position from China vis a vis Australian uranium export policy..

Surely the more appropriate sequence would have been to have the Cabinet discussion first, and make a fully-informed decision as to whether or not a change in the policy is desirable, and what its ramifications are, then take the matter to the party if needs be, armed with the support of a properly considered Cabinet decision…… Once she has made an exception for India, what is she going to say to our allies in Pakistan and her dear friends in Israel?

Nuclear policy and process dumped at the drop of a hat, The Drum, Paul Barratt, 21 Nov 11 The announcement by the Prime Minister that she intends at the forthcoming ALP National Conference to seek a change in the Party’s Platform to permit the export of uranium to India is of concern on three grounds: the content of the policy change; the apparent failure to extract anything in return for what is by any measure a major policy shift; and the extraordinary decision-making process by which this change is to be brought about.

The change has been presented publicly as little more than an administrative matter designed to correct an anomaly in our current export policy. The narrative runs that the policy discriminates against India because we are prepared to export uranium to China, a nuclear weapon state, but not to India for peaceful use. This is arrant nonsense.

Australia’s uranium export policy was established in the late 1970s
following an extensive public inquiry (the Ranger Uranium
Environmental Inquiry 1976-77) chaired by Justice Russell Fox. The
policy was a product both of Australia’s strong commitment to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which had entered into force
in 1970, and to the finely balanced set of recommendations produced by
Justice Fox to garner the widest possible consent to the mining and
export of uranium within an area of extraordinary environmental value,
inhabited by indigenous people living a traditional lifestyle.

Under the framework set forth by Fox, mining would be able to proceed
under a strict regulatory regime, with strong environmental monitoring
and research, the Kakadu National Park would be established, and
Aboriginal title would be granted over a number of areas of land in
the region, including the Ranger Project Area.

This was a package deal, and the Fraser Government wisely decided not
to tamper with it.

On the question of exports of uranium, the Fox Report recommended:\No sales of Australian uranium should take place to any country not
party to the NPT. Export should be subject to the fullest and most
effective safeguards agreements, and be supported by fully adequate
back-up agreements applying to the entire civil nuclear industry in
the country supplied. Australia should work towards the adoption of
this policy by other suppliers.
This has remained the basis of Australian policy to the present day.
It is an approach that has had the advantage not only of supporting
the NPT (and hence our own non-proliferation objectives) by making
access to the world’s largest supply of low cost uranium available
only to parties to the NPT, but also of enabling us to use the
International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) safeguards and inspection
regime as our primary worldwide infrastructure for verification of the
appropriate handling of “Australian Obligated Nuclear Material”
(AONM).

In implementing Fox’s recommendations the Fraser Government went
beyond simply requiring states wanting to purchase Australian uranium
to be parties to the NPT. They were required to enter into a bilateral
safeguards agreement which required, inter alia, that in relation to
all AONM the importing party would seek Australia’s prior written
consent to transferring the material to any third party, enriching it
beyond 20% U-235, and reprocessing it. This has remained the policy to
the present day, and the April 2006 agreement between Australia and
China embodies those principles.

India is not a party to the NPT, has never been, has developed a
nuclear weapons capability as a non-member of the Treaty, and
accordingly, is in an entirely different position from China vis a vis
Australian uranium export policy….

As for the process by which this momentous change is to be brought
about, it is so extraordinary that you couldn’t make it up.

Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister of Australia. As such, she leads
the Executive Government, sets the Cabinet agenda and chairs, leads
and controls its deliberations.  She has commenced the process of
changing Australian uranium export policy by announcing to the
Australian public, and then telling the Prime Minister of India face
to face, not that Cabinet, after due consideration, has made a
decision on this matter, but that she has decided to go to her party’s
forthcoming national conference and seek a change in the party’s
platform.

This approach apparently sets aside the requirement to consult
colleagues or seek advice from officials beyond her own immediate
circle.  It has become a matter of public record that she did not
consult the Foreign Minister, the Minister principally responsible for
Australian nuclear safeguards policy, indeed all matters relating to
non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament.  She is quoted in the
20 November edition of The Sunday Age (see here) as defending her
decision not to consult the Foreign Minister on the basis that “It’s a
leader’s decision, and I made it”.

Surely the more appropriate sequence would have been to have the
Cabinet discussion first, and make a fully-informed decision as to
whether or not a change in the policy is desirable, and what its
ramifications are, then take the matter to the party if needs be,
armed with the support of a properly considered Cabinet decision……
Once she has made an exception for India, what is she going to say to
our allies in Pakistan and her dear friends in Israel?
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3684518.html

November 23, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics international