When a collection agency contacted Letitia Mika in the summer of 2010 about $5,640 in credit card debt, she agreed to a settlement in which she would make monthly payments on half of it and the rest would be forgiven.
Then about a year later, a different company began calling her to try to collect that same debt. As the Chicago resident began to untangle a confusing web, she discovered that the first agency - P.N. Financial - did not have authority to collect her debt, but the second one did.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit against Skokie-based P.N. Financial last week, alleging that the company not only pursued debts it was not authorized to collect, but also broke laws by revealing information about debts to employers and family members and intimidating consumers with fake court case numbers.
Complaints about harassment from debt collectors have spiked nationally in recent years. Part of that may be a reflection of more Americans being unable to pay their debts in these shaky economic times. But consumer advocates also say that collection agencies have become more aggressive in their tactics.
Both states’ attorney generals offices in Missouri and Illinois rank complaints against debt collectors among one of the top consumer complaints they receive every year.
Madigan said she has seen a rise in brash - and illegal - techniques employed by the commission-based industry.
Of the 52 complaints her office received about PN Financial, she said, “Those were among the most egregious of violations that we’ve seen.”
An employee at P.N. Financial on Friday said no one was available to comment on the lawsuit and then hung up.
The Federal Trade Commission, which says it receives more complaints about debt collection than any other industry, logged a 17 percent increase in consumer complaints about debt collection in 2010 for a total of 140,036 complaints. The FTC hasn’t yet published the 2011 figures.
Nearly half of the complaints were about collectors harassing consumers by calling them repeatedly or continuously, which is prohibited under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Another common issue was consumers being contacted about debts they did not owe or that had been discharged in a bankruptcy.
In a recent study and survey by the Better Business Bureau in St. Louis, a third of respondents said they were called at least 20 times by debt collectors.
Another problem flagged by the report was consumers often don’t show up in court to defend themselves in suits and so default judgments are often entered, leading to garnishment of the debtor’s wages payday loans.
So Michelle Corey, the BBB’s president, said it’s important that consumers show up for those court dates, even if they don’t think they owe the debt or else they risk losing some of their wages.
There are a number of collection agencies in the St. Louis region who have a mixed track record. Some of them have an A rating from the BBB all the way down to an F, Corey said.
The BBB report also notes that Missouri is one of few states in the country without its own debt collection law that mirrors the federal law, making it difficult for state law enforcement authorities to take action against debt collectors. Illinois does have such a law.
Mark Schiffman, a spokesman for the trade group Association for Credit and Collection Professionals, said it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why the number of complaints against debt collectors have been on the rise.
“There was a significant volume increase in the amount of debt defaulted on in the last 3 to 4 years through the recession,” he said. “So significantly more volume would result in a rise in complaints.”
And he cautioned that many of the numbers of logged complaints, including those with the FTC, are not verified and are not necessarily about illegal behavior.
According to his group, third-party debt collectors recovered $55 billion and employed 148,000 people in 2010. But despite an increase in volume in the last several years, the amount of recovered debt has not increased much, he added.
“Consumers are struggling with the economy,” he said. “Many don’t have the ability to pay what they owe. It’s not boom time for the collection industry as people might think. Just because there is more volume doesn’t mean you can collect it.”
Rob Swearingen, an attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, sees a steady flow of complaints come into his office about harassment by debt collectors. One company told a client that a sheriff was on the way to arrest him so he should give them access to his bank account right away, he said.
“Debt collectors will say all kinds of things - there are as many crazy things as you can imagine,” he said. “They frighten people who are the most vulnerable.”
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron pledged more action to deal with
The Google+ social network has topped 60 million users, according to Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen, who also made the bold prediction late Tuesday that Google+ would reach 400 million users by the end of 2012.
Allen, who calls himself the "unofficial statistician" of Google+, runs hundreds of queries on various surnames on the social network each week. He has been tracking those names since Google first announced that Google+ had reached 10 million users in July.
Google+, the company’s answer to Facebook, got off to a roaring start, hitting the 10 million mark in just two weeks — and that was even before the site was open to the public.
But growth had tapered off, taking three months to reach 40 million users, according to Google’s numbers.
Google’s hasn’t given a more recent count. But Allen has seen a rapid resurgence, estimating that the service hit 62 million late Tuesday.
"It may be the holidays, the TV commercials, celebrity and brand appeal, or positive word of mouth, or a combination of all these factors, but there is no question that the number of new users signing up for Google+ each day has accelerated markedly in the past several weeks," Allen wrote on his Google+ page.
Google’s (, Fortune 500) social network is now adding 625,000 users each day, Allen said.
At that pace, Google+ would reach nearly 300 million users by the end of 2012. But Allen believes that growth will accelerate, enabling it to hit 400 million.
There’s one crucial missing piece in Allen’s analysis: He only cites the total number of people who have signed up for the network, not the number of people who actually use it. People may sign into the service to check it out and never use it again.
Facebook, by contrast, reports that it has 800 million "active users," which are those users that have viewed a Facebook page or have used an application. Half of all Facebook active users log onto the social network in any given day, the social network says.
Google entices users to sign up in its newly redesigned home page, by making Google+ the first option in an ever-present pull-down menu — an option that sits right above search. It’s unclear how many sign up but then never actually use Google+.
The technology and advertising industries alike are watching Google+ very closely, which could yet prove to be a sizable alternative to Facebook. The project is very important to Google, which is trying to overcome its past miscues in the social networking space.
More people visit Google’s network of websites than Facebook each month, but Facebook is killing Google in categories that advertisers care most about: Time spent and pages viewed.
The European Central Bank
+%3Cp%3E+As+expected%2C+BlackBerry+maker+Research+In+Motion+said+Thursday+that+it+had+a+miserable+past+three+months%2C+reporting+a+quarterly+profit+that+got+squeezed+by+slumping+sales+and+service+outages.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EWhat+wasn%27t+expected+was+such+a+miserable+outlook+for+the+current+quarter.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+said+it+expects+to+earn+between+80+cents+and+95+cents+a+share+on+revenue+of+between+%244.6+billion+and+%244.9+billion.+That%27s+way%2C+way+below+analysts%27+profit+forecasts+of+%241.16+per+share+on+sales+of+%245.1+billion.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM+also+said+it+expects+to+ship+just+11+million+to+12+million+BlackBerry+phones%2C+a+truly+disappointing+forecast+that+is+just+barely+higher+than+the+company%27s+smartphone+shipments+from+a+year+earlier.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EMaking+matters+worse%2C+the+company+also+said+that+its+future+platform%2C+BlackBerry+OS+10+–+the+cornerstone+of+RIM%27s+turnaround+plans+–+will+be+delayed+until+late+2012.+The+company+says+it+is+waiting+on+the+development+of+a+special+chipset+for+its+new+devices.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EShares+fell+by+8%25+after+hours%2C+even+though+RIM+%28%29+had+already+warned+investors+two+weeks+ago+that+its+financial+results+would+fall+short+of+the+company%27s+earlier+expectations.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+blamed+its+bad+third+quarter+on+lackluster+demand+for+its+new+PlayBook+tablet%2C+on+consumers+opting+for+cheaper+BlackBerry+smartphones%2C+and+on+its+three-day+service+outage.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BThe+last+few+quarters+have+been+some+of+the+most+trying+in+the+history+of+this+company%2C%26quot%3B+said+Jim+Balsillie%2C+RIM%27s+co-CEO%2C+on+a+conference+call+with+analysts.+%26quot%3BWe+understand+shareholders+may+feel+like+we+let+them+down.+%5BCo-CEO%5D+Mike+%5BLazaridis%5D+and+I%2C+as+two+of+RIM%27s+largest+shareholders%2C+understand+that+sentiment.%26quot%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBalsillie+said+that+he+and+Lazaridis+have+decided+to+take+a+salary+of+just+%241+a+year%2C+effective+immediately.+Last+year%2C+both+made+%241.2+million+Canadian%2C+which+was+around+%241.15+million+U.S.+at+the+time.+They+also+each+took+home+a+%241.2+million+cash+performance+bonus.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EDespite+the+terrible+results%2C+RIM%27s+co-CEOs+remained+upbeat+in+their+discussion+with+analysts.+BlackBerry%27s+user+base+grew+to+75+million%2C+up+35%25+from+a+year+ago%2C+they+pointed+out.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThey+also+said+that+the+company+is+%26quot%3Bmore+determined+than+ever%26quot%3B+to+overcome+its+execution+challenges.+They+preached+continued+patience+and+said+that+RIM%27s+transition+to+new%2C+improved+BlackBerry+OS+software+will+slowly+gain+traction+–+once+it+finally+releases.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BWe+ask+for+your+patience+and+confidence%2C%26quot%3B+said+Lazaridis+on+the+call.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBy+the+numbers%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+Waterloo%2C+Ontario-based+company+said+net+income+for+the+third+quarter%2C+which+ended+last+month%2C+fell+to+%24265+million.+That%27s+down+19%25+from+a+year+earlier.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM%27s+results+included+a+one-time+charge+of+%24485+million+write-down+due+to+underperforming+PlayBook+sales+and+a+%2454+million+charge+for+the+outage.+Without+the+charges%2C+RIM+said+it+earned+%241.27+per+share.+Analysts+polled+by+Thomson+Reuters%2C+who+typically+exclude+one-time+items+from+their+estimates%2C+had+forecast+earnings+of+%241.19+cents+per+share.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM%27s+sales+in+the+quarter+rose+24%25+to+%245.2+billion%2C+missing+analysts%27+reduced+forecasts+of+%245.3+billion.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM+said+that+it+shipped+14.1+million+BlackBerry+phones+last+quarter.+While+RIM%27s+third-quarter+smartphones+shipments+were+in+line+with+the+company%27s+forecast+of+between+13.5+million+and+14.5+million%2C+RIM+said+phones+were+sitting+on+store+shelves%2C+as+it+sold+fewer+devices+to+end-users+than+it+had+expected.%26nbsp%3B+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fmoney.cnn.com%2F2011%2F12%2F15%2Ftechnology%2Frim_earnings%2Findex.htm%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+
World stocks were mostly lower Wednesday after the Federal Reserve refrained from offering new initiatives to help a slowly recovering U.S. economy.
Benchmark oil hovered below $100 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.
European stocks were mixed in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 5,447.88. But Germany’s DAX lost 0.9 percent to 5,719.42 and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.1 percent to 3,043.60. Wall Street appeared headed higher, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.3 percent to 11,938 and S&P 500 futures rising 0.5 percent to 1,225.80.
Asian shares closed lower. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4 percent to end at 8,519.13, its lowest close in two weeks. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3 percent at 1,857.75 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.5 percent to 18,354.43. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat at 4,190.50.
On mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9 percent to 2,228.53, the lowest closing since March 2009. Benchmarks in Singapore, India and Indonesia fell while Taiwan and the Philippines rose.
The Fed on Tuesday said that the U.S. economy, while improving, is still weak. Unemployment remains high, and it remains vulnerable to the European debt crisis, which could push the continent into a recession and slow U.S. growth.
Analysts said markets were disappointed that the Fed refrained from a third round of large-scale purchases of Treasury securities, dubbed quantitative easing III or QE3.
“I think QE3 would be a welcome change to the status quo. I think the market was disappointed,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong.
Sentiment also remained fragile amid threats by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the credit ratings of 15 countries that use the euro because of the region’s debt crisis.
“We are likely to continue seeing some cautious trading as the threat of S&P coming out to issue some downgrades at some stage this week looms,” said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia payday loan lenders.
“Some would argue that this is already priced in, but it will still likely rock the boat should it happen.”
Export shares in Japan were under pressure as the yen strengthened against a shaky euro. Sharp Corp. dropped 2.9 percent while Toshiba Corp. lost 1.2 percent. Honda Motor Corp. slid 2.2 percent.
Chinese property shares dropped after the government signaled that it would maintain price curbs on real estate.
“The government has set a clear tone for reining in runaway housing prices next year,” Wang Yulin of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
Hong Kong-listed China Vanke Co. fell 0.6 percent and Evergrande Real Estate Group dived 3.9 percent.
Mainland Chinese shares slumped due to fears over slower economic growth and inflation, which “will make the market unstable in the short term,” said Li Jianfeng, an analyst at Caida Securities, based in Shanghai.
Shanghai Xinhua Media Co. lost 4 percent while Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media Corp. 5.9 percent.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent to close at 11,954.94. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.9 percent to 1,225.73. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 percent to 2,579.27.
Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 16 cents to $99.98 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.37 to finish at $100.14 an ounce on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3047 from $1.3043 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.95 yen from 77.97 yen.
___
AP researcher Fu Ting contributed from Shanghai.
Diplomats frazzled by sleeplessness debated into the early hours of Sunday at a U.N. conference over a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades.
South Africa’s foreign minister and chairman of the 194-party conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told delegates that failure to agree after 13 days of work would be an unsustainable setback for international efforts to control greenhouse gases.
“This multilateral system remains fragile and will not survive another shock,” she told a full meeting of the conference, which had been delayed more than 24 hours while ministers and senior negotiators labored over words and nuances.
The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.
The package must be approved by consensus, and no vote will be called. Determined opposition from even a small group of countries would unravel the deal put together after hundreds of hours of contentious negotiations.
Speakers from many developed countries said the package of documents more than 100 pages thick did not go far enough to help poor nations and did not require industrial countries to make more immediate and serious cuts in their carbon emissions. But most said they would accept it for lack of a better option.
But not Venezuela. “We all know this is a very bad agreement, that it will require more work next year and it cannot be adopted,” chief delegate Claudia Solerno said.
After weeks of being accused of obstructionism and delay, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern voiced surprisingly strong support for the deal.
“This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about,” Stern said. But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected.
Saturday afternoon, as negotiations dragged on with no sign of breakthrough, some ministers and top negotiators left Durban with no assurance of an agreement.
European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, drawn and fatigued after two nights with minimal sleep, warned that failure in Durban would jeopardize new momentum in acting against global warming.
Introducing the package late Saturday, Nkoana-Mashabane said its four documents, which were being printed as she spoke, were an imperfect compromise, but they reflected years of negotiations on the most central political responses to global warming.
The package would give new life to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, whose carbon emissions targets expire next year and apply only to industrial countries.
A separate document obliges major developing nations like China and India, excluded under Kyoto, to accept legally binding emissions targets in the future, by 2020 at the latest.
Together, the two documents overhaul a system designed 20 years ago that divide the world into a handful of wealthy countries facing legal obligations to reduce emissions, and the rest of the world which could undertake voluntary efforts to control carbon.
The European Union, the primary bloc falling under the Kyoto Protocol’s reduction commitments, said an extension of its targets was conditional on major developing countries also accepting limits with the same legal accountability. The 20th century division of the globe into two unequal parts was invalid in today’s world, the EU said.
The package also would set up the structure and governing bodies of a Green Climate Fund, which will receive and distribute billions of dollars promised annually to poor countries to help them adapt to changing climate conditions and to move toward low-carbon economic growth.
But the document made no specific mention of how those funds would be mobilized. Wealthy countries have pledged $100 billion a year by 2020 to poor countries, scaling up from $10 billion today.
The remaining document of more than 50 pages lays out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.
In the final hours, talks focused on unresolved differences on a clause encouraging countries to pledge greater reductions of greenhouse gases and to close what is known as the “ambition gap.” More than 80 countries have made either legally binding or voluntary pledges to control carbon emissions. But taken together, they will not go far enough to avert a potentially catastrophic rise in average temperatures this century, according to scientific modeling and projections.
Hedegaard said a lack of ambition could derail progress made on a host of other issues.
Countries had made concessions that they had resisted for years, and it would be “irresponsible” to lose that momentum now, she said.
Strong language on curbing emissions is of prime importance to small islands endangered by rising ocean levels and by many poor countries who live in extreme conditions that will be worsened by global warming.
Throughout the talks, the U.S., China and India remained stubbornly opposed to the EU’s plan to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto accord by 2020 that also would put them under legal obligations. The talks would conclude by 2015, allowing five years for it to be ratified by national legislatures. The plan insists the new agreement equally oblige all countries _ not just the few industrial powers _ to abide by emission targets.
Hours were devoted to arcane but diplomatically important questions of whether the objective of the talks was a legal “framework,” an “outcome,” or an “instrument.”
The expiring of Kyoto’s targets have hung over the U.N. process for years, and was the most contentious issue dividing rich and poor nations.
Developing countries were adamant that the Kyoto commitments continue since it is the only agreement that compels any nation to reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is deeply flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting developing countries. It was for that reason that the U.S. never ratified it.
Agreement by developing countries to accept binding targets essentially redraws the map. “That’s a very big deal,” said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. “That reflects a major macroeconomic and geopolitical change” in climate negotiations.
Summoned by Congress, Jon Corzine embraced a bold strategy Thursday to distance himself from MF Global’s fall and $1.2 billion in missing clients’ money:
Answer each question. Be courteous. And don’t huddle with your lawyer before replying.
He said very little. Nevertheless, it was a risky strategy, even for a risk-taking financial executive. Anything Corzine might say could be used against him in a courtroom, should he ever be charged in the MF Global case.
Yet the former CEO of the securities firm never declined to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The one-time senator and New Jersey governor was subpoenaed by his former colleagues to explain how MF Global collapsed just over a month ago in the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. It’s the first time in more than 100 years that Congress has subpoenaed a former senator to testify, according to Senate historian Don Ritchie.
Looking strained and speaking hoarsely during nearly three hours of testimony, Corzine said he never intended to break rules that require firms to safeguard client funds. He said he doesn’t know what happened to the missing money, but added that customers’ losses weigh on his mind “every day, every hour.”
He said several times that he did not become aware of the shortfall in client accounts until Oct. 30, one day before MF Global filed for bankruptcy following its disastrous bets on European debt.
“I’m not in a position, given the number of transactions, to know anything specific about the movement of any specific funds,” said Corzine, who took over as CEO more than a year and a half ago.
In his testimony to the House Agriculture Committee, Corzine sought to deflect blame for the company’s collapse, arguing that he inherited a firm already doomed by his predecessors’ bad financial decisions.
Legal experts said they were surprised by Corzine’s decision to answer each question, however vaguely, given the legal risks. The FBI and federal regulators are investigating MF Global.
It’s hard to see how the testimony will benefit Corzine, said Robert Mintz, a defense attorney in Newark, N.J., who specializes in white-collar cases.
Mintz said Corzine’s answers leave him open to “a barrage of questions about facts and circumstances that will no doubt be the subject of review by prosecutors and regulators.”
Two other congressional panels have also voted to subpoena Corzine.
His testimony provided his first public comments since the firm’s spectacular collapse. A lawyer who handles white-collar criminal cases accompanied Corzine and sat behind him during the hearing. But Corzine never turned to seek his advice.
The hearing wasn’t particularly confrontational, though a few members expressed disbelief that Corzine could be so detached as CEO.
Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., told him it strained belief “for you to sit there and say instant payday loans… you know nothing about” the missing customer money. A lot of farmers in Georgia need to know, Scott said. “The key to this is you. You’re the CEO.”
Corzine said he was confident that others at MF Global were checking daily to ensure that the firm’s money and clients’ fund were being kept separate.
“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date,” he said.
He said MF Global toppled, in part, because of a large quarterly loss caused by his predecessors’ accounting moves. Rating agencies responded to the loss by downgrading the firm’s credit rating, which panicked investors and trading partners.
“The marketplace lost confidence in our firm,” he said.
He disputed media reports that he personally pushed the company to make big, doomed bets on risky European debt using too much borrowed money.
He said he made the high-stakes bets only after discussions with company executives who traded European debt long before he arrived. And he said he reduced MF Global’s investment risks in some ways.
Some outside experts challenged some of his assertions.
Janet Tavakoli, an expert on the transactions MF Global specialized in, said Corzine’s remarks seemed to divert attention from the firm’s fundamental flaw under his leadership: It lacked the cash to cover its bets after investors started to fear that a major European nation would default.
“His entire testimony looks like a very skilled way to try to detract from that key issue,” said Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance.
Lawmakers have heard from farmers, ranchers and small-business owners who are missing money deposited with the firm. Agricultural businesses use brokerage firms to help reduce their risks in an industry vulnerable to swings in oil, corn and other commodity prices.
A Democrat, Corzine represented New Jersey in the Senate from 2001 through 2005. He later served a single four-year term as governor, losing a re-election bid in 2009. Before entering politics, he was CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Several class-action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders have been filed against Corzine and three other top executives, accusing the firm and its leaders of making false statements about MF Global’s stability.
Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law, said lawyers typically advise clients in Corzine’s situation not to answer questions.
“When you answer a full day’s worth of questions, you’re committing yourself to a story that could come back to haunt you,” Gillers said.
Mintz added: “It only makes sense if your answers can satisfy those posing the questions. Short of that, the risks far outweigh the benefits.”
Stocks are rising at the open on hopes for a plan to restore long-term confidence in the euro.
French and German leaders are meeting to discuss closer political and economic cooperation between the 17 nations that use the currency. They want tighter control of budgets, to prevent the kinds of debts that might to cause Greece and others to default.
Stocks overseas rose modestly Monday, while the yields on Italian bonds dove, suggesting traders believe that Italy is less likely to default. Italy’s government agreed this weekend on a package of austerity and economic growth measures.
The Dow is up 135 points, or 1.1 percent at 12,154. The S&P 500 is up 16, or 1.3 percent at 1,261. The Nasdaq composite index is up 32, or 1.2 percent at 2,659.
Australia’s ruling party voted Sunday to overturn a long-standing ban on exporting uranium to India, despite fierce opposition from critics who argued such sales are unsafe because India has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged members of her center-left Labor Party during its annual conference to allow the exports in the interest of the national economy, arguing there are safeguards in place to ensure the uranium would be used for peaceful purposes.
“We need to make sure that across our regions we have the strongest possible relationships we can, including with the world’s largest democracy, India,” Gillard said. “That’s why today we should determine to change our platform and enable us, under safeguards, to sell uranium to India.”
The party’s vote to amend an executive policy does not need parliamentary approval.
Australia holds 40 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves. It does not sell uranium on the open market and bans nuclear power generation at home.
But it sells uranium only for the purpose of power generation under strict conditions banning any military applications in bilateral trade agreements with the United States, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and several European countries.
Australia’s previous conservative government started negotiations with energy-hungry India on uranium sales. But the Labor government immediately ended the talks when it came to power in 2007, ruling out exports unless New Delhi signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Gillard had previously noted that the U.S. lifted a “de facto international ban” on nuclear cooperation with India in 2005 when it signed a deal with New Delhi to trade uranium and work together on civil atomic power generation.
But many Labor lawmakers slammed the policy change, arguing that selling uranium to India in the wake of this year’s nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor in the U.S. and other nuclear accidents was irresponsible and out of touch.
Labor Sen. Doug Cameron won a standing ovation from the crowd after a fiery speech in which he called the amendment “nonsense.”
“Prime Minster, you are wrong! Ministers, you are wrong!” he shouted to thunderous applause. “This is a bad move for the Labor Party, it’s a bad move for international peace.”
Others argued that India was too important an economic power to ignore.
“India, like China, is a rising superpower and it has to be upfront and center in our foreign policy and our foreign trade,” said Labor member Richard Marles. “(This amendment) will pave the way for our two countries to fulfill our shared destiny as nations and friends.”
The motion passed by a vote of 206 to 185.
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