alp to ban uranium mining in wa, page-13

Same information but in The West Australian.

Land council protests Labor's uranium ban
27th August 2008, 14:15 WST

Proposed West Australian legislation to ban uranium mining fails to take into account the plight of Aboriginal communities who stand to benefit from mining royalties, the Western Desert Land Corporation (WDALC) says.

The WA Labor government yesterday pledged to strengthen its anti-nuclear policies by introducing legislation to ban uranium mining if re-elected at the September 6 poll.

Premier Alan Carpenter, after long maintaining such legislation was not necessary, said the time was right to enshrine Labor's position in law.

But WDLAC chief executive Clinton Wolf said that with WA holding up to eight uranium deposits, including several in the Western Desert area of the Martu people, the decision had been taken without consulting the people it was most likely to affect.

The WDLAC, on behalf of the Martu, holds native title rights and interests covering 136,000 square kilometres of land within the Central Western Desert region.

Mr Wolf said there were numerous uranium mining opportunities on Martu land, including the major Kintyre deposit which Rio Tinto recently sold to the Cameco/Mitsubishi consortium for more than $500 million.

“While the Martu people have not yet had the opportunity to properly consider uranium mining on their lands, we are not opposed to it in principle,” Mr Wolf said.

“We strongly believe that uranium mining could be an opportunity for our people to generate equity and commercial benefit and importantly play an important part in the development of significant resources projects for this state.

“This is an important intergenerational issue for our people and it's an issue that Martu should be able to consider and make decisions about in an informed manner.

“(It is) especially a means of achieving economic and social outcomes for a group of people who continue to be under-serviced by the state government.”

Mr Wolf said the needs of people in the area were being ignored by the WA government.

He said pleas for assistance to Deputy Premier Eric Ripper, the minister with responsibility for Office of Native Title, had not met with any response.

“We have also been making representations to minister (Jim) McGinty, the Minister for Health, in relation to Martu health issues and he has not even replied to our requests for a meeting,“ Mr Wolf said.

He said the Martu were simply seeking “a fair go” to explore opportunities away from the government sector to enable them to play an active role in their future.

“It's an opportunity we believe has been taken away from us by the premier yesterday,” Mr Wolf said,

“By proposing to ban uranium mining, the state ALP government is effectively robbing one of the most poor and disenfranchised people in this country of the right to earn a living and potentially achieve an equity stake in a major mining project.”

PERTH
AAP