Greens MPs today are calling on the Federal Government to step up and redouble its efforts for the people of India and provide much needed assistance as the country battles millions of current cases. 

India is currently facing a tragic second wave of COVID19 with a record 349,691 new cases on Sunday and 2,767 deaths. Hospitals are running out of medical supplies including oxygen and basic medicines, there aren’t enough hospital beds or ventilators. Cremation and burial sites are over capacity for the first time in recent memory. 

The Greens have welcomed a report from the Joint Standing Committee On Treaties (JSCOT) that has just been tabled in the House of Representatives, recommending Tony Abbott's intention to sell Australian uranium to India should not go ahead at this time.

JSCOT member Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said:

Australian Greens nuclear spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam says the Abbott government has bizarrely linked its India uranium deal to the uranium trade with the Russian Federation, which it abruptly suspended this week in light of tensions in the Ukraine.

"Australia will now be directly complicit in a nuclear arms race in South Asia, with India moving to lock in foreign uranium supplies for power generation so it can preserve its domestic uranium for weapons production," said Senator Ludlam.

The Australian Greens say Tony Abbott is dealing the entire world a bad hand by sending Australian uranium to India.

"Uranium is not like copper and iron ore. It is a strategic mineral and a trade that Australia should be getting out of," said Greens nuclear spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

"It's extraordinary that Tony Abbott is signing a nuclear deal with India in the same week Australia has suspended future uranium exports to Russia due to security concerns.

Confirmation that the Australian Government has suspended potential uranium sales to the Russian Federation has been welcomed by the Greens, after questions placed by Adam Bandt MP in the House and Senator Scott Ludlam in the Senate.

"The Australian Greens have argued that uranium sales to the Russian Federation should never have been contemplated in the first place," Senator Ludlam said.

Negotiations to sell uranium to India that commenced this week must be abandoned immediately, said Australian Greens nuclear policy spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr's defence of India's non-proliferation record defies belief as well as history the Australian Greens said today.

"It is ridiculous for Bob Carr to defend India's non-proliferation record when India produced plutonium for weapons in 1974 from a Canadian-supplied reactor it pledged to use only for ‘peaceful purposes', said Greens spokesperson for nuclear policy Senator Scott Ludlam.

"The Foreign Minister has forgotten that Australia played a leading in role in establishing the Nuclear Supplies Group in direct response to this duplicity.

The Federal Government’s decision to pursue uranium sales to India is a disaster in the making, the Australian Greens said today.

Greens spokesperson for nuclear policy Senator Scott Ludlam said the Labor Party has proven it cannot be trusted on the environment.

“We will be working with the anti-nuclear movement in India – which has faced brutal repression in recent times – to ensure this does not go ahead.