The Advertiser: Shades of the Whitlam era [01apr06]

PETER Ellery draws a parallel between Australia's current uranium mining boom and the development of Western Australia's North West Shelf in the 1970s.

The former Woodside Petroleum public affairs manager says ALP policy "got in the way" of investment in Australia's largest offshore oil and gas project in the early 1970s, because Whitlam era minerals and energy minister Rex Connor wanted an Australian government-controlled oil and gas industry.

Woodside delayed starting work but later exploited the $14 billion resource to become the nation's largest oil and gas company.

The ALP's "no new mines" policy, which has restricted uranium mining to BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam and Alliance and Quasar Resource's Beverley 4 Mile mines in South Australia and Rio Tinto's Ranger mine in the Northern Territory is now in a similar position, he said.

The uranium industry, however, needs to step up its lobbying of the federal Labor Party to remove the policy and allow investment and development to happen for uranium mines, Mr Ellery says.









Unless that occurs, "no one will invest large amounts in uranium production beyond the three mines".

With Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo's arrival in Australia tomorrow expected to open the door to uranium sales to China, Mr Ellery says timing for industry lobbying was crucial.

"I paid a lot of attention to the three-mines policy when I was with the chamber (of mines) in Perth but it really wasn't a big issue then because the demand for it was falling," he says.

"There was no real pressure except that in 1985 a group from WA (CRA Exploration) did lobby the national ALP conference to remove the three-mines policy.

"(Then Treasurer) Paul Keating supported it and there was a huge effort by a small group of people. The vote was very close. It was almost successful."

Mr Ellery says the industry was now better able to overturn ALP policy. It "can demonstrate that (nuclear power) reduces greenhouse gas, has a safety record and a regulated protection system and has very significant economic benefits ... the potential for production and more discovery, driven by this hungry global demand, you can demonstrate".

Mr Ellery says the SA Government is taking an active pro-uranium stance, unlike the WA Government: with its current mining boom driving WA's economy, it was not "breaking its neck" to lift uranium-mine development.

SA, instead, expected Olympic Dam to pour $2.5 billion into the SA economy.

However, there was confusion over Premier Mike Rann's opposition to a nuclear waste dump and his support for mining. They are at odds, Mr Ellery says.

"I think (the SA Government) needs to drive a communications policy which will bridge apparent contradictions and stick to that".



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