By Greens Senator Scott Ludlam
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke is about to decide whether Western Australia’s first uranium mine will go ahead, potentially setting a huge precedent for the rest of the country.
We need your help to hold back the nuclear floodgates.
This proposed mine, near Wiluna, is on a lake bed that floods. It threatens to drive some species to extinction.
The WA government and the Toro company are trying to rush the approvals process before the March WA State election and haven’t given Tony Burke the information he requires by law.
A lot of people around the country are watching the Toro project, because it's the first mine application to come up for approval in Western Australia since the Labor Party overturned its longstanding policy against more uranium mines in Australia. The Coalition governments in QLD and NSW are watching to see if the Toro backers can get away with a shoddy approval process, because they have recently broken election promises and overturned long-held bans on uranium mining.
Uranium mining is not like any other mining. It’s dangerous to workers and the environment for generations. The Mary Kathleen site in Queensland – closed since 1982 – still leaches radiation into the water table. The Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu routinely seeps radioactively contaminated water. Rum Jungle uranium mine continues to cost millions of dollars to clean up – more than forty years after it closed.
The Toro mine could be the first step in Labor’s uranium export expansion push. Uranium accounts for just one-third of 1% of Australia's export revenue and an even smaller contribution to employment in Australia – much less than 0.1%. Still, parts of the ALP are determined to send more uranium across Australia to export, even though Australians understand the risks and are clamouring to build a genuinely renewable energy economy instead.
Yours sincerely,
Scott Ludlam
P.S. So far, uranium mines are the only area of environmental approval that Minister Burke isn’t preparing to hand over to states on December 7 in big business’ push to strip away environmental laws. As the governments of WA, QLD and NSW have demonstrated in their uranium rush, state governments cannot be trusted with sole custodianship of the Australian places and wildlife that are too precious to lose. Join our national campaign to protect them today.
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Queensland and NSW drop uranium bans
Strong opposition has surfaced following an expression of interest by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, the country's wealthiest Aboriginal organisation worth hundreds of millions of dollars, into uranium mining exploration. Some local Indigenous Lands rights groups have spoken out with environmental concerns about uranium mining. However, some have suggested that uranium exploration could be highly beneficial in enhancing jobs and industry for remote indigenous communities. Whilst it maintains that decisions are yet to be made, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council or ALC says a debate is vital.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has announced the 30-year ban on uranium mining in the state has been lifted. This follows just after Prime Minister Julia Gillard was in India selling the benefits of Australian-produced uranium. Mr Newman said that Queenslanders should not miss out on the economic opportunities and jobs that uranium mining can deliver. The Qld govt says there are no plans to develop nuclear power or allow the disposal of nuclear waste, but experts are concerned that the environmental risks involved with uranium mining have not yet been discussed.
Greens Senator Larissa waters says the Australian Government has told the Senate they are planning to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act to return to the states all environment decision making powers except those relating to uranium mining.
For these and other reports on uranium developments go to http://www.thewire.org.au/results.aspx?SearchFor=uranium&submit=++Search++, the site of "The Wire", a radio programme offered daily to more than 270 community radio stations across Australia.