Cluster munitions legislation must be strengthened

The scourge that they represent is illustrated by Laos, the most bombed country in history on a per capita basis. From 1964 to 1973, over two million tons of ordnance, including 270 million cluster submunitions, was dropped on Laos.

Estimates of the numbers of bomblets remaining in Laos vary. The relevant Laotian Government agency estimates that the country is host to 80 million as yet undetected bomblets. They are in every province, and 25 per cent of Laotian villages are contaminated by unexploded ordnance, 37 years after the end of the fighting. Currently 300 Laotians per annum are killed or maimed by them. Forty percent of the victims are children, usually performing livelihood activities like tending animals.

At the current rate of cleanup of these munitions it will take another 3,000 years to render the country safe. More than half of the population of this at-risk country was born after the conflict ended, but they must still endure its consequences.

In signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions Australia has agreed with a proposition in the Preamble that we are "determined to work strenuously towards the promotion of its universalisation and its full implementation". If we are serious about that, we will need to do much better than the Bill that is before the Senate, and will need to pursue much more pro-active diplomacy to bring about the worldwide elimination of cluster munitions.