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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2914 ..

MS TUCKER (10.38): I move:

Omit all words after "That" and substitute:

"(1) This Assembly considers that the nuclear testing program conducted by France in the Pacific in 1995 was an abuse of human rights and of the ecological integrity of the Pacific. The consequences of this testing program will be felt for many thousands of years, and this Assembly recognises that international opinion was against the testing.

(2) This Assembly therefore calls on the Government to write to the French Prime Minister, Mr Chirac, restating that this Assembly deplores and condemns the nuclear testing program for the above reasons.

(3) In view of the recent actions of the French Government in signing the Rarotonga Treaty and the Pelindaba Treaty and recognising that this particular ban has reached the end of its usefulness, this Assembly terminates its requirement of 20 September 1995 for the implementation of an indefinite ban on the Government purchase of products which are manufactured or supplied by French manufacturers or suppliers or are produced in France, whether by French establishments or otherwise, and furthermore resolves that the ban will no longer apply to new contracts or any other contractual arrangements.".

We are moving this amendment to the motion so that it reflects, in at least some degree, the outrage felt by the majority of Australians and people all around the world at the barbaric and arrogant actions of the French in Tahiti and the Pacific. The French attitude that Tahiti is France and, therefore, nuclear testing is a domestic affair represents the worst form of outdated colonialism. At least 130 underground nuclear warhead explosions at Mururoa since 1975 have produced fissures in the atoll's limestone base and deeper fracturing of the volcanic core. This is, and will be for some 20,000 years at least, a significant threat to the ecological integrity of the Pacific. This is, and will be, a significant abuse of the human rights of the people of the region.

I will read out to you some of the words of Marguerite Tetuanui, a woman of Tahiti who tried to read this letter herself at the Women's Conference in Beijing, but who unfortunately could not attend that conference because French officials somehow lost her papers:

Today, I will like to talk about our environment and specially on the French nuclear testing in Mururoa. During 17 years we fight against these French testings, but not very many people pay attention to us. But today I think that the whole world will hear our call coming from our [heart]; and I thank all the countries and Greenpeace which help us in this fight.

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