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The Australian political landscape on uranium


In the last ten years, there have been important positive changes to Commonwealth government policies relating to the mining and export of uranium, headed by the abolishment of the "Three Mines Policy" in 1996.

The current Australian Federal government's objective is to encourage the development and growth policy is to develop the export potential of Australia's uranium industry by allowing mining and export of uranium under stringent environmental requirements and strict procedures fro the export of uranium strict international agreements designed to prevent nuclear proliferation. This compliance is monitored by the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office.

Proponents of new uranium mines in Australia are required by legislation to complete a comprehensive environmental impact assessment process, which calls for public comments on the proposal. The projects are assessed jointly by Commonwealth and State / Territory government agencies. For approval, the projects must meet strict requirements for environmental, heritage and nuclear safeguards.

The States and Territories control the licencing of uranium mining and have a wide range of policies on the development of uranium mining. The South Australian State Labor government currently permits uranium mining at Olympic Dam and Beverley, and supports the planned expansion of Olympic Dam. In addition, the State government is actively promoting and partially funding, exploration for uranium-bearing deposits. While it currently maintains the "no new mines" policy of the Federal Labor party, the South Australian State government is in favour of reviewing this policy at the next Federal Labor party conference in 2007. This contrasts with the State governments in Western Australia and Queensland which have policies against the development of uranium mines