Twyford Phil: Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Twyford Phil: Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3460. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 I move  
That the Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill be now read a first time. 
 I nominate the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee to consider the bill. [ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: The member has the floor. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: This bill would ban the possession use sale manufacture testing and transit of uranium weapons within New Zealand and by agents of the New Zealand Government. Depleted uranium has been described as the Agent Orange of the 21st century. There is growing international concern about the health risks it poses to combatants civilians and the environment. I want to make it clear from the outset that definitive scientific studies conclusively demonstrating the health impacts of depleted uranium weapons have not been done. Nevertheless this bill takes the precautionary approach because we believe there is sufficient concern and sufficient evidence that uranium weapons do pose an unacceptable risk. Belgium and Costa Rica have in recent years legislated to ban depleted uranium weapons and for New Zealand to adopt a similar ban would add our voice to a growing international movement just as we did with nuclear weapons landmines and cluster munitions. 
Let me explain for a minute a little about depleted uranium weapons. Depleted uranium is the by-product of the processing of uranium ore for use in nuclear reactors and in nuclear weapons. It is an extremely hard substance and over the last 25 years militaries have chosen to use depleted uranium weapons primarily as an armour-piercing munition. It has been used in a number of recent conflicts: both the first and second Gulf Wars and in the Balkans and there is some dispute and argument about whether it has been used in Afghanistan in recent years. 
When the depleted uranium warhead impacts it ignites at an extremely high temperature and a radioactive and chemically toxic gas is released. This is what is primarily the thing that risks the damage to both combatants and civilians who are exposed. About one-third of the 800000 United States veterans of the 1991 Gulf War now claim disability benefits for mystery illnesses and depleted uranium exposure has been put forward as one of the risk factors that is likely to be a factor in that syndrome. There has been a sharp increase in cancers and child deformities in Iraq after 1991 and 2003. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
PHIL TWYFORD 
: Depleted uranium weapons have been linked to a sharp upsurge in cancers and birth deformities in Iraq after the wars in both 1991 and 2003. The most recent cases which have attracted considerable media coverage were reported by Iraqi doctors in Fallujah which was the subject of very heavy bombardment in 2004. Depleted uranium weapons also leave land contaminated and the data from Iraq indicates that those weapons have not been restricted only to armoured targets but have been used extensively against civilian targets. The result is a very large number of contaminated hot spots. 
Experience shows that decontamination is extremely difficult and expensive to achieve. This is why the definitive epidemiological studies on the effects depleted uranium weapons have not yet been done. Such a study would require full transparency from the military authorities including their targeting data detailed site management and environmental assessments a stable cohort of civilians numbering in the thousands a stable political situation in the affected area detailed pre- and post-conflict health records and the political will from Governments to fund this work. Think about Iraq which is the place where depleted uranium weapons have most recently been used. These conditions simply cannot be met. There has been a breakdown in the health authorities loss of records massive displacement of the civilian population ongoing security concerns and active obstruction by the US authorities. 
Nevertheless depleted uranium does pose a serious risk to human health and the environment. Radioactive dust particles from depleted uranium weapons contain a high proportion of uranium which is a known carcinogen and causes birth defects. Multiple studies suggest that leukaemogenic genetic reproductive and neurological effects are a result of chronic exposure to depleted uranium. Three UN resolutions each of which New Zealand voted for acknowledge depleted uranium as a potential hazard as do the World Health Organization the UN Environment Programme and the International Atomic Energy Agency and as do I should add the military users of these weapons who all have extensive precautionary safeguards in place to reduce the exposure of their personnel to depleted uranium. But civilians have no such protections. 
The question is then when should States act when there is clear evidence of potential risk but the best available science is unable to provide the required level of certainty? If depleted uranium weapons were being used on New Zealand soil or our Government was grappling with hundreds of contaminated hot spots and contaminated wreckage then I feel sure that our Government would not monitor the situation for years or decades waiting for conclusive scientific studies; we would apply the precautionary principle just as we do in our Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. 
This bill asks that those basic health and environmental protection norms should be available to the many and not just the few. The bill seeks to add uranium weapons to the list of weapons that New Zealand has outlawed as international law has progressed over the last 100 years. That list includes chemical and biological weapons nuclear weapons landmines and cluster munitions. 
Why should we prohibit a weapon that New Zealand does not make or use? Well there are two reasons. The first is that New Zealand soldiers risk exposure to depleted uranium weapons in the battlefield which is why the defence force requires personnel returning from places like Afghanistan to provide urine samples so that their exposure to low-level radiation can be checked. I also note that when this issue was discussed at the select committee Jerry Mateparae then the Chief of Defence Force came along and told the select committee that the defence forces would prefer that New Zealand personnel in the field were not subjected to depleted uranium weapons. 
The second reason for considering this bill and the ban it proposes is that by legislating a ban New Zealand would add its voice to a growing international movement calling for a global treaty outlawing these weapons. We have done it before with landmines we have done it with cluster munitions and I submit to this House that now is the time to do it with depleted uranium weapons. In 2009 the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee declined to support a petition brought by a group of citizens in Christchurch asking the committee to consider addressing the central concerns about depleted uranium weaponry. Unfortunately the committee did not support the petition and reported back to the House with what I regard as a pretty anodyne and disappointing response on this issue. Labour and the Greens tabled a minority view supporting the petition and calling for a ban based on the precautionary principle. That view inspired this bill and I hope that members tonight having heard the arguments will send this bill to the select committee so the issue can be considered again. Thank you.