Fri, 20th June 2008   SMITH SPEECH ON INDIA THE TIME TO REVERSE URANIUM SNUB

The Hon Andrew Robb AO MP   Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs (to 22 September 2008)

The Rudd Government can today correct the serious snub to India by reversing its  earlier decision to abandon uranium sales for clean electricity generation.

Today's speech by the Foreign Minister, Mr Smith, about the importance of the  Australian-Indian relationship is totally overshadowed by the Rudd Government's  stance on uranium sales to India, said the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, the  Hon. Andrew Robb AO MP, today.

''One of the first foreign policy acts of the Rudd Government was to overturn a  decision by the Howard Government to help India supply greenhouse gas free  electricity to its growing population, provided certain conditions were met, under a  agreement being negotiated between the US and India.

''This was the wrong decision by the Rudd Government and by the Foreign Minister  telling India it was because of 'party politics' the offence was compounded,'' Mr Robb  said.

''India's energy security and needs are the major issue in the relationship between  our two countries.

''This issue can strategically make Australia a very important partner to India. It is the  thing India really wants from us. It is the big issue.

''While Mr Smith rightly refers to India's incredible economic growth, the fact of the  matter is that for this growth to continue, India needs access to reliable energy  supplies.

''And from a climate perspective there is overwhelming merit in addressing the reality  of India's energy needs by supplying the resources for clean energy - otherwise  these resources will simply come from less environmentally friendly sources.

''As India grows it will rank third behind the US and China in terms of global energy  usage and greenhouse gas emissions.

''If the uranium deal succeeds, and the existing restrictions on the import of nuclear  technology and uranium for peaceful power sources are removed, by 2050 as much  as 35 per cent of India's total energy needs could be met by clean nuclear power  plants.

''And the conditions that Australia placed on any sales of uranium to India would  have seen global non-proliferation strengthened by including India, a country which  has an exemplary record on non-proliferation, with the majority of India's nuclear  reactors coming under the strict coverage of the International Atomic Energy Agency  for the first time.

''However, while the Rudd Government is saying to our Indian friends that we do not  trust them with our uranium, at the same time Mr Rudd and Mr Smith say they have  not yet made up their minds on whether to veto sales of uranium to India by the 44  other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

''This makes no sense. How can Australia refuse to sell our uranium to India, yet  plausibly support the rest of the world supplying uranium? Either way, Australia will  be adding insult to injury.

''The bottom line on all this is that by reversing Australia's commitment to sell  uranium to India, Labor did substantial damage to the Australia-India relationship.

''The national interest was not considered. Climate change was ignored. Nuclear  non-proliferation was sidelined. A China bias was implied. Constructive US policy  towards Asia was opposed. India's feelings were trampled on.

''It makes absolutely no sense to sell uranium to China and Russia, and not to India.

''It makes absolutely no sense to claim climate change to be the great moral  challenge of our time and then block the adoption of nuclear technology which is  greenhouse gas free, and which already provides 16 per cent of the world's  electricity needs.

''The US-India nuclear agreement is good for India, good for Australia, good for the  region, good for climate change and good for nuclear non-proliferation.

''The Foreign Minister should use today's speech to announce a reversal of this bad  policy. It is disastrous politics. It is a position that is unsustainable. It can and must  be reversed.

