Strategic analysts, church and environment groups will give evidence to Western Australian Parliament’s Joint Treaties Committee, which is focusing on the costs and benefits of the government’s proposed agreement to sell uranium to India.
The government said it believed the agreement maintained Australia’s strong commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and would improve the lives of ordinary Indians by reducing energy poverty in that country.
The agreement has attracted criticism from some nuclear non-proliferation specialists because India is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has been subject to external and internal criticism for its nuclear safety record.
Committee chair Wyatt Roy emphasised this was a “complex matter”
“The committee will be undertaking a diligent and comprehensive look at the proposal to make sure all the issues are fully explored and considered,” Roy said.
Addressing the hearing will be the Uniting Church of Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth and “private citizen” Crispin Rovere, who has written for Australian Policy Online about non-strategic nuclear weapons: the next step in multilateral arms control on behalf of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
