resource capital research 2007march qtr report, page-14

LABOR leader Kevin Rudd supports uranium mining but believes states should decide whether or not they want it in their own backyards.

Mr Rudd says he will argue at the next national Labor conference for a change to the party's no new uranium mines policy because he believes they are important for the nation.

But Mr Rudd today assured WA Premier Alan Carpenter, who is staunchly against uranium mining, that if Labor won the next federal election he would not force states to mine uranium.

"What state governments do in the future, in relation to their own land management systems, and approval systems for mining licences and permits et cetera, is a matter for state governments,'' Mr Rudd said.

"I am a federalist, I actually believe that we have national powers and responsibilities that we have got to be responsible for, and that includes our export control regime, and when it comes to state governments, they are responsible for land management.''

Mr Carpenter said his government would not support uranium mining, or the development of a nuclear industry in WA, or allow the state to be used as an international nuclear waste repository.

"I believe very firmly that if we pick up one end of the stick of the nuclear industry, that is uranium mining, we will pick up the other end of the stick, that is accept the waste,'' Mr Carpenter said.

"In Western Australia I am absolutely certain that those two things would go together.

"The agreement that I have had with Kevin Rudd today is that this issue is a matter for state jurisdiction.

"If the South Australian people, and the South Australian Government, want to expand their uranium mining industry then that is a matter for the South Australian people and the South Australian Government.''