Wednesday, 13 September, 2006

AAP

THE Labor Party should scrap its "half pregnant" uranium mines policy, union boss and Labor candidate Bill Shorten said today.

But Mr Shorten has not decided whether he wants Australia to use nuclear power.

Labor leader Kim Beazley wants to scrap the party's policy of not allowing any new uranium mines. The issue will be decided at next year's ALP national conference.

Mr Shorten, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union and candidate for the Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong, was speaking to high school students in Canberra today. He said Labor's policy was inconsistent and should be changed.

"I think, with uranium, the policy which they've got in place was invented 22 years ago to fix an argument then," Mr Shorten said.

"Not mining uranium doesn't stop uranium being sold.

"Not mining uranium in two states but mining uranium in two other states, to me is a bit like being half pregnant."

Mr Shorten said other issues that needed to be resolved were nuclear waste disposal and protocols for export.

"I think that one of the key issues about uranium is making sure that with other countries ... that you don't sell it to people who might turn it into nuclear weapons or do other unpleasant things," he said.

Asked whether nuclear energy was the answer to global warming, he said it was not an "either-or" and could be used with renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

"I think the case about nuclear power, the economic case, hasn't been made yet. The jury's a bit out on that," he said.

"In terms of the nuclear power debate, I don't know.

"For myself, the idea of nuclear power stations tends to raise hairs on the back of my neck. I'm not sure I'd want to live near one."