urg::: End ban on uranium: union

[Justin Tutty]

  By Katharine Murphy
23sep05 NTNews

THE Labor Party has come under renewed pressure from one of Australia's 
biggest unions to dump its ban on new uranium mines.

Bill Ludwig, national president of the powerful Australian Workers 
Union, yesterday called on Queensland Labor Premier Peter Beattie to 
lift his state's ban on uranium mining.

"I think we should have a practical debate about this and not an 
emotional one," Mr Ludwig said. "We've got no in-principle opposition to 
nuclear power, provided it is done in a responsible way."

Mr Ludwig's call will ignite hostilities in the labour movement, with 
two powerful left-wing unions, the Australian Manufacturing Workers 
Union and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, which 
represent thousands of coalminers, bitterly opposed to nuclear power and 
the uranium industry.

It also aligns Mr Ludwig's right-wing union faction with soft Left 
federal Labor resources spokesman Martin Ferguson, who has been 
spearheading a campaign to get Labor to reverse its opposition to 
expanding uranium mining. Three weeks ago, he urged Mr Beattie to 
rethink Queensland's opposition to new uranium mines.

The AWU, which represents uranium mining workers, will argue that Labor 
should scrap its 20-year-old "three mines" policy when the issue is 
debated at the next Federal Labor Party conference, scheduled for 2007.

The Labor premiers of Victoria and Western Australia have also come 
under pressure to reverse their opposition to uranium mining.

Mr Beattie has declared that the current ban should stay, because more 
uranium mining would detract from the stellar performance of the coal 
sector in his resource-rich state.

But the Queensland minerals industry has recently increased pressure on 
Mr Beattie by calling for valuable uranium deposits in the state's 
northwest to be exploited. Thirty-two uranium deposits have been 
identified in Queensland.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said recently 
the state's resource sector was in favour of uranium mining and 
dismissed arguments that it would hurt the state's coal exports. "We 
don't see uranium as a threat to the coal industry and are hoping that 
the Government will agree to reconsider its policy position."

Yesterday, AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron blasted Mr Ludwig's call 
and said it would be opposed strongly if there was a debate to change 
Labor Party policy.

"We don't see any merit in capitulating to global corporations putting 
profits before the safety of their workers," Mr Cameron said. "More 
uranium mining won't change the Howard Government. The priority for the 
ALP is to defeat the Howard Government and we shouldn't be diverted."

"Unions should not capitulate to big business demands."

The CFMEU, which represents 13,000 coalminers, has already declared its 
opposition to developing nuclear power because of inadequate safeguards.

The South Australian branch of the ALP, which presides over BHP 
Billiton's massive Olympic Dam deposit at Roxby Downs, holder of up to 
one-third of the world's known uranium deposits, also wants the 
three-mines policy on the agenda for debate at the next Labor conference.

Uranium is also mined at the Ranger operation in the Northern Territory 
and the small Beverley mine in South Australia. However there are dozens 
of undeveloped deposits around the country.

Mr Ferguson's stance is strongly opposed by many Australian 
environmentalists, some health groups and by a large proportion of the 
federal Labor caucus, including the ALP's environment spokesman Anthony 
Albanese.

Nuclear power and uranium mining has been put back on the political 
agenda by the Howard Government's push for a substantial increase in 
exports because of a surge in the world price of uranium. Driven by a 
global rethink on the merits of nuclear energy, the price has trebled in 
the past two years.

ABARE figures released this week forecast Australian uranium exports to 
rise 1.6 per cent from 11,249 tonnes in 2004-05 to 11,434 tonnes this 
financial year. Reflecting the soaring price of the commodity, the value 
of uranium exports will jump almost 30 per cent to $616 million.

Canberra is negotiating a new agreement with China that would see 
Australian uranium sent to Beijing for civilian purposes. Some Cabinet 
ministers have also backed the concept of nuclear energy in Australia.

Uranium mining has always been divisive for the ALP and the wider labour 
movement. The party split dramatically on the issue during the 1980s 
until Bob Hawke pushed through the compromise three mines policy.

Mr Ludwig said Australia needed to position itself for a dramatic 
increase in the number of nuclear power plants in southeast Asia, the US 
and Europe as the world embraced "cleaner" energy sources.

"Just today there are 440 reactors producing 16 per cent of the world's 
electricity," Mr Ludwig said. "Rising gas prices and coal constraints 
have put nuclear energy back on the agenda."

He said there were potentially 60 new plants being planned in our region 
over the next decade. "Australia has the capacity to benefit from that," 
he said.

He also said that while nuclear power was not an option in Australia 
immediately, he had no objection to an industry in Australia down the 
track.

"As long as its used responsibly I don't see any difficulty," he said.