check it: "The federal minister is clearly rattled by the polls and he should be pleased that I and other members of the Labor Party will be moving to put an end to our 'no new mines' policy next month."
End port bans on uranium: minister Samantha Maiden, Political correspondent March 21, 2007
AUSTRALIA'S ports must be opened to uranium exports, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has demanded during an attack on state government prohibitions on the movement of yellowcake. Mr Macfarlane yesterday challenged federal ALP leader Kevin Rudd to push state governments to dump their bans, as Labor prepared to end its ban on an expansion of uranium mining. Mr Macfarlane has called for a new regime that allows uranium to be exported from ports in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Darwin.
"All ports should be able to export uranium. It's in drums, it's safe, it's not as though you can't stand next to the stuff," Mr Macfarlane said in an interview with The Australian.
"It should be able to go out through Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth.
"In terms of ports, they are controlled by state legislation but we give the export permit. There's no point having an export permit if you can't get the stuff on the wharf."
The plan would require the transportation of uranium through metropolitan areas.
"If it complies with the safeguard arrangements, if it poses no public risk in the real sense of the word, I want to see Peter Garrett standing up there and saying 'I am happy to have it exported out of Botany Bay'," Mr Macfarlane said.
"I want to see him out there in his orange high-visibility vest waving the trucks through and saying 'Here's a Coke, you're doing a great job'. We restrict it at the moment to one port, out of Darwin. It's got to be mined in South Australia and be shipped to Darwin. Let's see what we can do with Mike Rann about getting uranium exported out of South Australia."
Mr Macfarlane said Mr Rudd should not be allowed to celebrate a "hollow victory" by dumping Labor's prohibition on an expansion of uranium mining at the ALP's national conference if the states retained bans on mining and exports.
"They're out there scratching everything that may have uranium under it because uranium is worth $100-plus a pound at the moment," Mr Macfarlane said.
"So there's a lot of money to be made out of this and Australia has the strictest export conditions in the world."
Mr Rudd said last night he had no plans to change the ALP's policy on uranium and Australia's ports. "If Ian Macfarlane wants to force small ports around the country to export uranium, that is his business," he said.
"Labor believes states have the right to make the decision for themselves."
South Australian Premier Mike Rann said Mr Macfarlane was "out of his depth".
"Ian Macfarlane is showing that he doesn't know that uranium was transported out of the Port of Adelaide for many years and it is a decision of the shipping line - not state government regulation - that determines that our uranium oxide is currently shipped out of the Port of Darwin," Mr Rann said.
"The federal minister is clearly rattled by the polls and he should be pleased that I and other members of the Labor Party will be moving to put an end to our 'no new mines' policy next month."
(20min delay)