Tuesday, 27 February, 2007

by Joseph Kerr and David Uren
The Australian

LABOR's two most senior figures will vote for the party's ban on new uranium mining to be lifted in April, but have baulked at pushing the Labor states to develop new mines.

ALP deputy leader Julia Gillard has joined Kevin Rudd in calling for the scrapping of Labor's no new mines policy at the party's coming national conference, leaving leading opponents of a bigger nuclear industry, such as Peter Garrett and Anthony Albanese, increasingly isolated.

But Ms Gillard has refused to push anti-mining states such as Western Australia, Victoria and NSW to lift their bans.

On Sunday, she announced she would vote for the lifting of the national ban, saying: "I'm for jobs, jobs and jobs."

However, she said yesterday she would not push the states to lift their own bans.