Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Mr. Chair, Mr. Parliamentary Secretary, distinguished colleagues.
I would first like to set this amendment in context. The government publishes an annual report on the military material exported in the previous year. As those exports have already taken place, the information comes too late for any problems at all to be usefully raised. We want more transparency here. It is the same as groups like Oxfam, Project Ploughshares and Amnesty International asked for when they met with officials from the office of the Minister to discuss the matter.
The amendment asks for a report to be tabled each month in the House listing the exports approved in the previous month. As I told you, that would be a simple measure of transparency which, in my opinion, is an indispensable condition for public debate in all democratic societies. So this is about tabling a report each month.
Perhaps you are going to tell me that a lot of things are approved. But if the government can issue approvals monthly, it is also capable of submitting a report monthly. We are not talking about a huge pile of technical details, if we go by what is already being done.
Despite the amendments that have already been passed today, the government is still keeping discretionary powers for itself. We are asking to be informed each month so that monitoring can be done in real time, rather than one year later when everything is over and done with.
Thank you.