It must be remembered that for three years Australia has endorsed the sale of uranium to India - But not by Australia.

Australia through the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) provided defacto agreement for countries in general to export uranium to India. In 2008 our then Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said that NSG permission for India to receive uranium was due to "India's rise as a global power" and he added, "If such a request was made for another country, I don't think it would have been cleared by the NSG members."

During his visit to India in September 2008, Smith said that Australia "understood and respected India's decision not to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty". see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93India_Civil_Nuclear_Agreement#Reactions_following_the_waiver

Turning to the NPT - the NPT states that almost all countries cannot have nuclear weapons. However the NPT gives nuclear weapons privileges to the "Big Five" Permanent Members of the UN Security Council (Russia, China, the UK, US and France). Now why is that?

The fact is the Big Five shaped the NPT in the 1960s to consolidate their nuclear weapons advantage. China in particular wished to use the NPT to block its competitor India from nuclear weapons status. Through Rudd in 2008 China continued that anti-India policy.

The ideological misgivings of leftwing members (predictably favouring China) of the Australian Government have blocked a uranium trade to India, so far.

As we all know the logic of the NPT suggests that authoritarian China and Russia (with poor records of nuclear proliferation) are more deserving of Australian uranium than democratic India. Hence the uranium ban on India is morally indefensible.

Pete
http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2011/11/australian-prime-minister-gillard-now.html

At Last Julia Gillard is admitting that some of Labor's policies are more based on ideology rather than reality, and has adopted the pre 2007 coalition position.

I know it is just baby steps, but as she get more limber at backflipping, maybe she could then try the Pacific solution.

Julia Gillard's announcement about uranium sales to India comes hard on the heels of a likely upgrade of US military base facilities in Darwin and on the Western Australian coast. They in turn follow Gillard getting her orders from Obama at the recent G20 meeting. Those expecting a consistent, logical and morally defensible policy from this government are delusional. The vote against Palestinian admission to UNESCO (along with 13 other regressive nations) but again in line with the US and Israel is merely one example among many. The only question remaining is whether Gillard is a ventriloquist's dummy or a sock puppet to the US/Israel world view.

Now that Gillard has all the silly stuff out of the way, it's down to pragmatics.

A good front to open on the greenies.

The coalition is irrelevant, unless of course Cockroach Credlin pulls out her Dr No muppet.

Neutral You must have seen that one coming. Some only have a one track mind like the sm. You have to think above and beyond sometimes to find a motive for such moves, it is not done for no reason.

A good decision. A quantum leap ahead of allowing a "rip off Indian students" industry to operate, then thinking you can smooth it all over by saying how much you like Indian food. And to top it off you tell them that they aren't morally fit to be sold our uranium, whilst selling it to China and Russia. Policy like this is an embarrassment and makes Australia look very uncouth internationally.