South Australia: Labor and Liberal keep uranium mine information from the public

Last night, Labor and Liberal combined to defeat a Greens motion calling on the release of more information from the world’s richest resource company to justify BHPB’s preferred option to send Roxby ore to China for processing.

Labor & Liberal roll over on Roxby ‘China Option’, 15 Sept 11, South Australian Greens Parliamentary Leader Mark Parnell has accused the SA Labor Government and Liberal Opposition of abandoning domestic processing for the Olympic Dam expansion.

In 2007, Premier Rann stated in a media release headlined “BHP Billiton’s ‘China Option’ is not South Australia’s option”, that ‘the South Australian Government will strongly oppose any moves by the company to do most of the processing of minerals from the expanded Olympic Dam mine overseas’.

“It’s pretty clear from last night’s vote that the Government has given up on its previous public commitment to insist on the job-rich processing of South Australian ore in South Australia,” said Greens MLC Mark Parnell.

“It’s also pretty clear the Liberal party has joined them in rolling over and meekly accepting BHP Billiton’s wishes.

“We have to remember these are our resources, not BHP Billiton’s. If the Government wants to, it can insist that the majority of the job-rich processing occur right here in South Australia, not in China.

“Premier Rann was right in 2007. Last night’s vote is the clearest signal yet he has abandoned his previous commitment to oppose the ‘China Option’ and with it many of the expected local jobs for the Roxby expansion,” he said.

Last year, the Greens released a peer-reviewed report that showed that a ‘no uranium’ option for the Olympic Dam mega-expansion was not only technically feasible, but would lead to better environmental outcomes. It would also lead to more jobs as the ore would be processed in SA.