Original Message
From: “Rees, James (REPS)
To: “Anne Goddard”
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 4:37 PM
Subject: RE: Submission against the supply of Uranium to China from the
Goddard Family

Dear Ms Goddard,

I first need to clarify a couple of matters.

When a submission is made to a Parliamentary Committee and the committee decides to formally receive it becomes the property of the committee and it is a matter for the committee to determine whether it is published.

Someone making a submission to a parliamentary committee should not otherwise publish it until after the committee has done so. It is an issue of parliamentary privilege which is explained in the pamphlet Preparing a submission to a Parliamentary Committee Inquiry http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/documnts/howsub.pdf) and more
fully in Chapter 18 (pp 664-7) of House of Representatives Practice
(http://www.aph.gov.au/house/pubs/PRACTICE/5Ch18.pdf). In the normal course of events submissions to committee inquiries are received and published at the earliest available opportunity after they are received unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. This is consistent with your expectation that a parliamentary committee inquiry of this type should be an open and public process.

The media report you have attached refers to the purchase by China of a 60% stake in an uranium deposit which is only a potential mine. Without the ratification of the agreements, even if the deposit were commercially exploited, the uranium could not legally be exported to China. The Treaties Committee has not concluded its deliberations on the uranium agreements with China and intends to conduct more public hearings and hear from a range of witnesses before it does so. When its deliberations are concluded it will report publicly to the Parliament on its findings.

The committee is receiving a large number of representations which, like yours, have their genesis on the internet. To avoid the complication of the publication and confidentiality issues I have refered to above I am intending to recommend to the committee that it receive and publish on its website material compiled and circulated on the internet and the subject of multiple and substantially identical “submissions” as correspondence. If you have any queries about anything in this email I would be happy to explain it further. I may be contacted on 02 6277 4642.

James Rees
Committee Secretary