Uranium sales to India are both illegal and not wanted by many Indian people, the Australian Greens said today.

Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam said a growing mass movement in India is opposed to nuclear power and Australian uranium exports to their country.

"There's been a lot of garbage shopped by the uranium industry and its shills in Parliament about how great uranium sales are for the Indian people. Maybe they should listen to what people - people, not just officials - in India are saying.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said the Gillard government should ensure the Parliament debates the US military build-up planned for the NT and the alternative of Australia charting an independent course in the Asia Pacific this century.

"President Obama, who was very warmly welcomed to our nation's capital, today delivered an important speech about America's increased involvement in the Pacific and the economic and military imperatives that lie behind the US plans for Australia," Senator Brown said in Canberra.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown spoke to 936 ABC Hobart's Leon Compton live from Canberra today about President Obama's visit, the expansion of Australia-US military ties and nuclear proliferation.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown spoke to 3AW's Tom Elliott today about Julia Gillard's dangerous move on uranium sales. They also discussed equal marriage and the upcoming ALP conference.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today the prospect of selling uranium to India will horrify many Australians and is a giant step towards another backflip by both major parties: hosting a global nuclear waste dump in Australia in the years to come.

As well as Prime Minister Julia Gillard's flouting of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Senator Brown commented on the old parties' stance on equal marriage.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today the prospect of selling uranium to India will horrify many Australians.

"Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott agree on selling uranium to nuclear-armed India although the Australian people have had no say," Senator Brown said in Hobart.

"It's all about helping multi-billion-dollar mining corporations make more money, as Martin Ferguson would wish, at the expense of regional security. The government has removed the super profits tax from uranium."

The Prime Minister’s regrettable cave-in on uranium sales to India is the latest in a long and dishonourable line of ALP policy capitulations on uranium and nuclear security issues, Australian Greens nuclear issues spokesperson Scott Ludlam said today.

“The mining industry is now setting foreign policy to suit their commercial interests, through their Cabinet representative Martin Ferguson,” Senator Ludlam said.

I move that the Senate-
(a) notes:
(i) that the International Atomic Energy Agency will report on 8 November 2011 on the Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and
(ii) recent statements regarding potential military strikes on Iran; and
(b) calls on the Government to intensify diplomatic efforts through the Australian delegations in Vienna, Geneva and New York aimed towards a peaceful solution to this situation.
Question agreed to.

471 Senator Ludlam: To move-That the Senate-

(a) notes that:

(i) 23 300 nuclear weapons are in existence posing direct and constant threat to international peace and security with thousands on hair
trigger alert ready to be launched within minutes of an order to fire,

(ii) nine countries possess nuclear weapons and under ‘nuclear sharing' arrangements five others have nuclear weapons on their soil, and

(iii) at the height of the cold war, nuclear weapon stockpiles were approximately 70 000 warheads and more than 40 000 have been
dismantled;