Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (16:35): I move:

That the Senate discuss the implications of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and Australia's participation at the High Level Meeting on Nuclear Safety and Security to be held on 22 September 2011 at the United Nations Headquarters.

The Barnett Government's secretive new deal with China will boost exploitation by foreign mining companies at a time when the resources boom is suffocating the rest of the Australian economy, the Greens said today.

Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam said a number of provisions in the Memorandum of Understanding set off alarm bells, chiefly the demand for total confidentiality.

The Australian Government needs to drop the platitudes and commit to the only real nuclear safety policy - the permanent closure of the nuclear industry - in the wake of another accident at a nuclear plant, the Australian Greens said today.

Greens spokesperson for nuclear affairs Senator Scott Ludlam said the Australia-France Joint Statement on Civil Nuclear Safety, issued on September 11th - the day before an explosion rocked the French nuclear plant of Marcoule - was a "declaration of delusion".

Question No. 364

Senator Ludlam asked the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 17 December 2010:

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (19:07): I rise to speak briefly on an issue that is very close to my heart and an issue that in many ways brought me into this chamber in the first place. The day before yesterday I woke up at a rock pool about 20 kilometres from Wiluna in the north-east goldfields of Western Australia to see off about 100 people who are taking part in the walk against uranium mining. Just the sheer logistics of getting a hundred people to Wiluna in the first place was quite an extraordinary feat.

Western Australians will begin a one thousand-kilometre protest march against uranium mining this Sunday 21 August.

Australian Greens nuclear affairs spokesperson, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, will join the ‘Walk Away From Uranium Mining' on Sunday as it begins the long journey from Wiluna to Perth.

"This is an extraordinary moment for our state and for the future. The nuclear industry is in decline around the world and public awareness of the dangers of uranium mining and nuclear power is growing.

Questions over potential Australian action on Burma's alleged nuclear program have remained unanswered by the Government for 250 days, the Australian Greens said today.

Senator Scott Ludlam put the questions on notice to the Minister representing the Foreign minister in the Senate chamber in December last year.

The Government has invented a new reason to avoid answering questions in Senate Estimates hearings today, refusing to address topics relating to leaked documents.

"The Government has set an arbitrary and dangerous precedent based on nothing more than discomfort at revelations in successive WikiLeaks disclosures," Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said today.

Finance and Administration Committee Thursday 26 May 2011

The Federal Government's Future Fund is clearly violating its own policies and cutting across Australia's international legal obligations by investing in companies that manufacture nuclear weapons, the Australian Greens said today.

Under questioning in Senate estimates hearings this morning, the Acting General Manager and Chief Investment Officer of the Future Fund disclosed that the Fund had not sought legal advice before defending its $135.4 million investment in nuclear weapons manufacturers.