Reflecting on ALP conference, and on the 1976 Fox Report on uranium mining
The Fox Inquiry (often referred to as the Ranger inquiry) was comprehensive. It travelled around Australia, to hear evidence from 281 people, recorded in 12,575 pages of transcript.
The specific Fox recommendation that Labor decided to finally reject today was as follows:
“No sales of Australian uranium should take place to any country not party to the N[uclear] N[on]-P[roliferation] T[reaty]. Export should be subject to the fullest and most effective safeguards agreements, and be supported by fully adequate back-up agreements applying to the entire civil nuclear industry in the country supplied.” (Report No 1, 1976, p.186)
Then and now: Labor’s nuclear conflict, The Drum Dan Cass , 6 Dec 11, My father, Moss Cass, phoned just now and we talked about the Labor Party’s national conference decision to export uranium to India, a country not in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Uranium mining was a big issue in our household when I was growing up and it became the reason that I decided to not to follow Moss into the Labor Party…… In 1984 the Labor Party national conference adopted the ‘three mines policy’ which sanctioned the largest uranium mine in the world at Roxby Downs (Olympic Dam) and the Ranger and Nabarlek mines, while preventing any new mines from opening.
I knew then that it would not be possible for me to join Labor, on account of its ‘half-pregnant’ stance on this issue…..
In 1995 I finished at university and decided to join a political party: The Australian Greens.
Mr Fox and the nuclear industry Continue reading
In Australia Liberal and Labor follow G.W. Bush in fostering spread of nuclear technology and weapons
How Labor finished Bush’s uranium script The debate over uranium exports to India has ignored the most important argument of all, writesAndy Butfoy Inside Story, 23 November 2011 THE biggest threat facing humanity is the uncontrolled spread of nuclear weapons. Because it is the custodian of the world’s largest reserves of uranium, Australia has a special responsibility to help protect the global rules containing this danger. But you wouldn’t know this from reading Julia Gillard’s announcement backing the sale of uranium to India, or from listening to the subsequent comments from the opposition’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop. Continue reading
Victoria was set to get nuclear power in 1980s
For Victoria, nuclear power was oh so close, crikey, 21 March 11, by Bill Birnbauer, As news of Japan’s nuclear radiation crisis hits our screens, it is apt to remind ourselves just how gung-ho some of our own senior bureaucrats and politicians were about building nuclear power stations in Victoria as recently as 1980.The former State Electricity Commission had assessed at least 10 coastal locations for their suitability as nuclear power station sites…..Nuclear power: For Victoria, nuclear power was oh so close | Crikey
Perth a nuclear target
Perth ‘on nuclear front line’ | Herald Sun, January 01, 2011, PERTH could face increased risk of Soviet nuclear attack under plans to allow US warships to be based in Australia, Cabinet documents from 1980 reveal.But the then defence minister Jim Killen had earlier told Parliament that Australia, a strong US ally, was likely to be a nuclear target in any case……Australia also offered the US use of Darwin to land B-52 bombers flying from Guam on surveillance missions over the Indian Ocean...Perth ‘on nuclear front line’ | Herald Sun
U.S. military bases made Australia a nuclear target
the use of the Cockburn Sound base, which was not far from Perth, might increase the risk of nuclear attack………….
Australia feared nuclear attack over US ties: archives ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Emma Rodgers 1 Jan 2011, Malcolm Fraser’s cabinet was warned in 1980 that boosting its military ties with the US could put Australia at risk of a nuclear attack and expose it to involvement it in American operations contrary to its national interest, secret cabinet documents show. Continue reading
Julian Assange, like Wilfred Burchett, fighting to reveal truths
Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett in the late 60s was banned from Australia….After the bombing of Japan at the end of the second world war he travelled to a site,..He observed that survivors of the blast were dying of radiation sickness…
…Assange has his rabid homicidal detractors, his vague accusers, and for a time was banned from entering Australia by the confused prime minister Julia Gillard. Both Assange and Burchett are, and were, fighting to reveal truths.
A precedent for Julian Assange’s predicament The Guardian, Bill Green 31 December 2010, Continue reading
Australia’s role in ‘peaceful’ nuclear energy diverted to nuclear weapons
The connections between nuclear power and weapons are well documented and even have a precedent in Australia.
North Korea Steps Up Aggression, Sydney Morning Herald James Norman/Jim Green
December 1, 2010, “………What proponents of nuclear power often fail to understand is the frequent connection between nuclear power programs and weapons programs. North Korea provides one of the most pressing examples of this. Continue reading
Australia’s Parliament reported on degrading effect of uranium mining on Aboriginal people
The1997 Australian parliament report observes: ‘(The) history of uranium mining in Australia and its impact on Aboriginal people is deplorable. Past mining in places like Rum Jungle have left areas so degraded that traditional owners are unable to use them, while mines such as Ranger (also in the Northern Territory) have been forced on traditional owners against their will.” “Even at mines such as Olympic Dam,” it adds, “…there was deep concern at the reckless degradation of sacred sites and insensitivity to their culture.”
Enough of Uranium Mining, Say Aboriginal Communities. Galdu. Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, August 2010, “……..For decades, uranium mining has been a touchy subject for Aboriginal people. Hundreds of Aboriginal communities were cleared out into cattle stations, towns and cities in the fifties and sixties, when Australian and British governments tested atomic weapons in the South Australian desert and off the coast of Western Australia. Continue reading
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
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