Pickets oppose uranium mining
By Janet Parker
SYDNEY — A "yellow-cake luncheon" was held outside the state Labor Party offices on September 22 to let the ALP know that there is strong opposition to allowing uranium to be mined.
Speakers from Friends of the Earth, Movement Against Uranium Mining, People for Nuclear Disarmament, Greenpeace and the Wilderness Society emphasised that any decision by the ALP at its federal conference to expand the mining of uranium will be seen by the environment movement as a betrayal.
"The ALP's decision, just prior to the 1983 election, to allow Roxby Downs to go ahead, is one that has haunted them ever since", MAUM spokesperson Murray Matson said.
"It was a message to the mining industry that the ALP has a flexible conscience on uranium and can be pressured into a back-down. As a result, we see the same battle every national conference between those trying to preserve the ALP's environmental credentials and those currying favour with the mining industry." Matson called on national conference delegates to make a historic decision to end uranium mining altogether.
"Contrary to the claims of the mining company lobbyists", Matson said, "there is no economic justification for allowing further mining to occur. It has been shown by NUEXCO, a US uranium trader and analyst, that there is no demand for another Australian mine. Neither of our two current mines are producing at full capacity, and one is actually buying cheap foreign uranium and using it to meet its own contracts."
ALP assistant state secretary Anthony Albanese told the protesters that not one ALP branch had put forward any motion supporting the expansion of mining. So, he said, no delegate should have a mandate to support further mining.
MELBOURNE — A group of 15 anti-uranium demonstrators picketed the state ALP offices in Carlton on September 22. Spokesperson Linda Marks from Friends of the Earth told the group, "The much vaunted economic benefits of uranium are at best questionable, whilst the risks are documented and real. We intend to show the ALP that uranium remains an issue of great concern in the Australian community and the party needs to acknowledge this. If it fails to do so, it will suffer at the ballot box."
DARWIN — Forty people marched on September 22 to protest against moves to open up further uranium mines in the Kakadu National Park. Protesters chanted, "Export Ede, not uranium" in reference to Territory Labor leader Brian Ede's strong lobbying to have the three mines policy overturned. Outside the Legislative Assembly, the protesters heard from NT Environment Centre campaign coordinator Jamie Pittock, Dr Phil Nitschke from the Medical Association for the Prevention of War and Trish Crossin, an ALP delegate to the national conference, who said that despite Ede's stance, the platform of Territory Labor still supports the three mines policy.