Additional Estimates - Thursday 16 February 2012 - Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 

Additional Estimates - Thursday 16 February 2012 - Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee - AUSAID 

Additional Estimates - Tuesday 14 February 2012 - Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee - Department of Defence

Senator LUDLAM: I have a batch of questions that range fairly broadly across a number of topics, so you might want to direct me to officers later in the day, but I will start with opening statement stuff. I have a couple of questions about the recruitment of Afghan National Army soldiers. Can you tell me what exactly Australians have asked ISAF to do to ensure that there is not systemic infiltration of the ANA by the Taliban? 

The Australian Government should be wary of reducing the number of individuals subject to its Burma sanctions list, the Australian Greens warned today.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the Burmese regime is yet to make any substantial progress towards loosening its grip on power.

"The recent elections were subject to a series of structural constraints and acts of out-and-out electoral fraud which rendered the outcome a hideous foregone conclusion: the junta's domination of the nominal parliament.

Senator LUDLAM: Thanks, Chair. I have a couple of brief questions, as senators would probably expect, on Burma. I raised in Canberra last night the issue of the civil war that is occurring in the Kachin and Shan states at the moment, and a particular report of the Kachin Women's Association Thailand documenting continued institutional rape as a weapon of war by the Burmese army since June 2011. First of all, are the officers aware of that study? Welcome back, Mr Borrowman.

Mr Borrowman : Thank you for the welcome. Yes, we are aware of the report.

Australian companies must abandon trade deals with Burma's military dictatorship, the Australian Greens said this week.

Greens spokesperson on Burma, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, criticised Perth-based Twinza Oil in the Senate last night for the assistance it has given to the Rangoon regime's war on the Burmese people.

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (17:50): I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response by the Minister for Trade that has just been tabled.

Leave granted.

Senator LUDLAM: I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

With this week marking the fourth anniversary of the Burmese regime's crackdown on protests by Buddhist monks, the Australian Greens called on Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to take action to establish a United Nations inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma.

Four years on from the Saffron Revolution, 222 monks are still imprisoned in Burma while not a single perpetrator of the violent repression has been held to account.

Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee
Senate Budget Estimates, June 2011
Questions on Notice: AusAID
Question No. 8

Senator Ludlam asked on notice
Aid distribution to Burma:
a) What is the distribution of aid within Burma by state/province?
b) What aid is sent to the border areas from the Thai and/or Indian side?
c) What aid (in dollar figures and as a rough breakdown) is given to the area around Mae Sot and the refugee camps in the area?

Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee
Senate Budget Estimates, June 2011
Questions on Notice: AusAID
Question No. 7

Senator Ludlam asked on notice
a)  How much funding was provided to the Burma/Myanmar Update Conference this year?
b)  What is the process by which the decision to fund this conference is made?