Question Time 2

Ok, so this next question time that I have listened to was actually held in the Senate. It was actually quite an interesting meeting! The first topic on the agenda was a discussion of the suggestion to sell Uranium to India. At first I was a little confused by this as I was unsure what the NPT was. After a quick consultation with a housemate, I was back on track! India has not signed the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), and there are growing concerns that if Australia DOES sell the uranium to India, there may in fact be an arms race between India and neighbours Pakistan. The liberal party have tried to ease concerns by stating that they would only supply the uranium to India for "peaceful purposes" and that in the past, India have not made any actions to suggest that they will use the uranium for negative purposes. In my opinion, I think that India should sign the treaty, so that Australia would have less reservation in supplying the nation with uranium. Although the uranium will provide India with reducing the amount of greenshouse emissions, I'm not sure that Australia should provide the uranium without India signing the NPT.

Keeping in with this theme of greenhouse emissions, discussions of renewable energy were brought up a number of times throughout the question time meeting. The Liberal party seemed to want to really highlight the fact that they have spent a lot of money on solar energy and how this is of great benefit to consumers, but in my opinion, there is still A LOT that needs to be done so the renewable energy becomes the prefferred and more effective form of energy.

The discussion then moved onto the internet safety filters that the government have installed to ensure the safety of Australian families. More than $189 million was spent on these filters which in my opinion is very excessive. There is a point where parents must step in and monitor what their children are doing online. There are already many programs such as "Net Nanny" which parents can buy to ensure their children are safe online. The government could have put a large proportion of that money into something more in need of funding, such as the health care or education system. After a second consultation with my housemate, I learnt that apparently there was a young boy who cracked the filter within 20min of its installation! As soon as the crack had occurred, the professionals made a new version of the crack, in which the boy took 40min to crack. A huge waste of money!