The government's monumental backflip to embrace Coalition policy on selling uranium to India is a long overdue admission that its policy was wrong, and that it has caused unnecessary harm to our relationship with an important nation in the region.
That Labor's policy was illogical, irresponsible, ideological, hypocritical and was contrary to Australia's national interest does not seem to have bothered the Labor leadership since the day former prime minister Kevin Rudd reversed the Howard government's 2007 decision to sell uranium to India subject to appropriate bilateral and international safeguards.
Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and others have all argued repeatedly against sales of uranium to India on the basis that it was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Labor has sought to occupy the high moral ground in this debate with its stance on treaty membership being non-negotiable for any country wishing to purchase Australian uranium.
Then opposition leader Kevin Rudd on 15 August, 2007 said "... It is a very bad development indeed when we have the possibility of the government of Australia stepping outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty and saying it's OK to sell uranium to a country which isn't a signatory to the NPT. This is a significant breach from the consensus of Australian governments in the past and I believe sends a bad message to the international community."
Then prime minister Kevin Rudd on 12 November, 2009 said: "On the question of bilateral uranium sales, can I say that our policy remains governed by the provisions of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. That has been the case in the past. The Non-Proliferation Treaty and our policy in relation to it, as underpinning our attitude to uranium sales is not targeted at any individual country. It has been long-standing Australian government policy."
Then deputy prime minister Julia Gillard on 3 September, 2009 said: "Our government has had a longstanding policy, which is not in any way directed at India but is a longstanding general policy, that we supply uranium only to countries that are signatory to the NPT."
Treasurer Wayne Swan on 16 February this year said: "The government has made its position very clear, that our policy is that we will not be selling uranium to those that have not signed the treaty. That's our position."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 20 March this year said: "On uranium exports to India, we've had a long-standing policy of not exporting uranium because we've got a long-standing policy - which is not aimed at India — but a long-standing policy of not exporting uranium to countries that are not signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. So, not individually aimed at India, but does have the effect that we don't export uranium to India."
Having established this as an immutable Labor principle, the Prime Minister has now decided to ask the union bosses who dominate Labor's national conference for permission to sell Australian uranium to India, despite the fact India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
While the Prime Minister is yet to gain the permission of her union bosses for this about-face in policy, it does beg the question as to why she would choose to make this announcement at this time.
The government has been warned repeatedly that its policy was damaging our relationship with India, but it has to date studiously ignored the warnings.
Even the withdrawal of the Indian Prime Minister from the CHOGM meeting in Perth did not elicit a response from the government.
Perhaps a clue as to the government's backflip can be gleaned from a paper released recently by Australia's Lowy Institute, in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation in India and the Heritage Foundation in the United States, which called for the establishment of a new three-way dialogue between the US, India and Australia.
The paper specifically identified Labor's ban on uranium sales as a key impediment to closer security relations with India.
If there is to be any progress on deepening security ties with the US and India, then Labor had to walk away from its allegedly deeply held principle on the NPT Treaty.
The bottom line to this saga is that Labor should never have banned sales of uranium to India in the first place.
Labor should have avoided years of unnecessary tension and suspicion in our relationship with India, a growing economic, political and strategic mega-democracy of this coming century.
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