7. Uranium Exports to India

Australian Government recently overturned decades of bi-lateral opposition to the export of Australian uranium to countries that have not ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Government has now endorsed selling uranium to India, a non-ratifying nation.

Last year and earlier this year, the Prime Minister and several senior MInister made a small number of public comments about uranium sales to India. These are quoted below as an example of the Orwellian use of language by the Howard Government - and in the hope that reading these words, it will become clear why The Wilderness Society does not believe for one minute the current denials by the same gentleman that Australia will not have an international nuclear waste dump (even though their own party has unanimously endorsed one in Australia).

NB - Note the difference of opinion between the PM's comments on 25 September 2006, and those of the Deputy PM and more recently the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources.

23 May 2007: The Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane, is reported in The Age as saying:

"The answer is no. The Australian uranium industry can prosper without India, that's my answer. We have a prohibition on the basis they have not signed the NPT." Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/...

13 January 2007: Speech by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, at an Energy, Environment and Air Quality Policy Forum in Los Angeles:

`...we have been talking to the Indian Government about whether it would be possible to put together some arrangement with India whereby we could export uranium and be sure that the uranium could only be used for civilian purposes - power generation. Not be used in any way, shape or form for military purposes".  Source: http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/...

25 September 2006: Statement by the Prime Minister on selling uranium to India, broadcast on ABC Radio:

`We are examining all of the implications of the Indian request and the desire of India to be part of the nuclear system and get access to uranium for peaceful purposes,'' Howard told reporters in Sydney. ``That would require a change in policy.'

25 September 2006: Statement by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile on ABC:

"Our policy remains the same as it has been. The way we addressed this issue with China, we maintained we could not do business with China until we had the nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed and in place, and that is the policy that we would apply today with India."

6 June 2006: Transcript of the Prime Minister, Press Conference, Parliament House, Canberra
Source: http://www.pm.gov.au/media/...

“I don’t predict any immediate change in our policy, our current policy is only to sell to countries that are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

6 March 2006: After meeting the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the PM said about the NPT:

“Our position has been that we would not sell uranium to countries that do not adhere to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We don’t have any current intention of changing that policy.”

Read about the Prime Minister's (temporary?) backdown over uranium sales to India, after domestic pressure, in the Globe and Mail: Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/...