Friday, 27 April, 2007

by Melinda James
NT Stateline

MELINDA JAMES – Reporting:
Warren Snowdon, thanks for joining us.

WARREN SNOWDON – President ALP NT
My pleasure, how are you?

MELINDA JAMES:
Well thank you - will Labour’s No New Uranium mines policy be scrapped?

WARREN SNOWDON:
I suspect it will be, although we won’t know for certain till tomorrow afternoon when the vote will be taken. It’s been an interesting discussion, it’ll happen on the forum conference tomorrow, and there’s clearly a lot of discussion going on around the corridors here. But you would have to say given the way in which the proposed change was announced, that it’s very likely that it will be successful.

MELINDA JAMES:
Why are you opposed to more uranium mines?

WARREN SNOWDON:
For a range of reasons, not the least of which is that I’ve been engaged in this discussion for over thirty years and the concerns I had then about nuclear waste disposal and the nuclear proliferation still remain, and I haven’t been assured that there are any ways in which to satisfy those concerns. But many advent the reason I’m actually voting for it primarily, the way I’m voting here, is because I undertook a process of discussion with the branch in the Northern Territory. I held six forums across the Northern Territory specifically about uranium, and I sought advice, indeed direction if you like, from the rank and file of the party and those who attended those meetings were very strong in their view that we shouldn’t change the policy. So as president of the party, I followed my duty to make sure that I represent that view accurately on the forum conference and I will.

MELINDA JAMES:
In that case is Claire Martin on her own here, as an NT Labour member?

WARREN SNOWDON:
No, there are clearly labour members in the Northern Territory who are supportive of the proposal. And I think Clare and party are indeed responding to a situation which currently exists in the Northern Territory that is, we have no control over whether or not uranium is mined, unlike the other states because we’re a territory. And the commonwealth government has made it clear that regardless of the policy of the Northern Territory government had at the time, they would expand uranium mining in the Northern Territory at their win. And they’re doing that at the moment with the potential for new mines to be opened beyond the control of the Northern Territory government. So I think there’s a reason, a need to respond to that. But on the other hand the interests that are expressed in the party’s concerns about proliferation, environmental issues, and nuclear waste disposal in particular are still relevant. And they need to be discussed in debate in the forum and they will be.

MELINDA JAMES:
So if as you say, the no new uranium mines policy will be scrapped, what form do you think the new policy will take - will it be open slather if labor wins the federal election this year?

WARREN SNOWDON:
Well understand this, it’s open slather at the moment except for the fact that states have in their jurisdictions can decide to determine whether or not they want new uranium mines. What will happen after this motion is simply will be that federally the labour party will change its policy to change that element of the policy which said there’d be no new mines after the three mines. Well if that changes, will it mean open slather, I don’t think so. There’ll be I think restrictions placed upon the mining in any event in relation to not only environmental issues but also the question of proliferation. I mean there is genuine concern in the community and there remains genuine concern in the community about the downstream issues involving nuclear, in the nuclear industry, and they’ll have evidence from the debate which happens here tomorrow and whether or not we change the policy, those concerns will remain.

MELINDA JAMES:
You have accused the South Australian government of hypocrisy because it supports uranium mining but refuses to store nuclear waste - that seems to be the same position that the Chief Minister holds, are you also saying Claire Martin is also a hypocrite?

WARREN SNOWDON:
No because Clare Martin hasn’t been in the position the South Australian government has been in, and Clare Martin stated very unequivocally prior to any change in the view of uranium mining, that she opposed the site of nuclear waste facilities in the Northern Territory, in the way in which it was opposed by the federal government. The strongest proponents for change, the people who are in this case South Australia, who are wanting to massively increase the export of uranium for their own state and have new mines, who initiated this discussion at the same time as they were initiating this discussion were opposing the site of a nuclear waste facility in their own community. Now we’ve got to if we’re involved in the nuclear fuel cycle I think there is a moral imperative to discuss the question of waste. And if in this case the South Australian government was so strongly advocates of expanding uranium mining industry then I think there is a moral question to be responded to here is do they accept any responsibility or not about what happens downstream after they’ve sold product into the nuclear fuel cycle.

MELINDA JAMES:
Warren Snowdon I’d like to move on to labor’s new platform for Indigenous policy, the ALP has flagged that it will establish a national body to represent Indigenous Australians - will it be just another ATSIC?

WARREN SNOWDON:
It will never be another ATSIC, and what its form will take will depend on discussions and negotiations with the Indigenous community, but I can guarantee that it will not be another ATSIC.

MELINDA JAMES:
Will it be a democratically elected body?

WARREN SNOWDON:
It may or not be, it will depend on the processes by which we either discuss or have but the idea from our prospective would be that it should be a democratic institution but it needs to probably represent the views and interests of Aboriginal people, Indigenous Australians from across the country and have some regional structures to feed into it. That’s our idea at the moment, we’ll see where that goes once we’ve had the discussion with the Indigenous community. But at the moment there’s no process for doing that because we’re not in government, we can have the sort of the discussions around this conference, the sort of discussions we have independently of this conference around the traps, but we will have to have a formal process of discussions with the Indigenous community before we finally get a model. But there are a whole range of other issues that are addressed in this platform including such things as employment, education, housing, security of children and families, and the question of violence in Aboriginal communities’ all of these are addressed in this forum, platform and I think that it’s a great innovation, a very good platform and something that I think will get a great deal of support across the community.

MELINDA JAMES:
One final question Warren Snowdon, the hot topic today was of course Kevin Rudd’s proposed industrial relations tribunal, Fair Work Australia, it's been criticised by legal experts and business as being potentially invalid under the constitution, if it is found to be unconstitutional, that would be a major blow for Kevin Rudd wouldn’t it?

WARREN SNOWDON:
I don’t think it will be found as invalid and I think they’ll just have to wait and see of how it’s properly designed, and then they can make their challenges. But what were seeing here of course is the principal advocate from the business community of course are those people who are closest to John Howard. What else would you expect?

MELINDA JAMES:
Warren Snowdon, thank you very much for joining us.

WARREN SNOWDON:
Cheers, thank you.