Tuesday, 25 July, 2006

AAP

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Kim Beazley admits his push to overturn Labor's policy on new uranium mines will inflame tensions within the party.

In a speech in Sydney last night, Mr Beazley said he wanted to scrap Labor's longstanding no new mines policy, introduced in 1984 to confine uranium production to three mines.

Labor's environment spokesman, Anthony Albanese, has already vowed to fight the proposal at next year's national conference.

But others, such as resources spokesman Martin Ferguson and union leader Bill Shorten, have backed a change in the policy.

Mr Beazley today acknowledged the debate would cause rifts in the party.

"There won't be blood on the walls, but there will be a serious argument," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"We're going to have an argument in the Labor Party, because we're a principled party and we work for our positions with considerable intellectual vigour and rigour."

Prime Minister John Howard said it was commonsense for Labor to scrap its opposition to new uranium mines with Labor's existing policy contradictory and needing to be overhauled.

"To get rid of the three mines policy is ... a no brainer," he told ABC Radio.

"There's never been any justification for discriminating between mines that were already in operation and those that weren't.

"It was just a political compromise to settle a dispute within the Labor Party about 25 years ago. It made no policy sense and it's got no public rationale."

Mr Beazley said he did not expect Mr Albanese to support his position.

"He will not agree with me and we'll have a debate about it at the conference," he said.

Mr Albanese said he would try to convince the party its existing policy on uranium mining was responsible economically, environmentally and socially.

"I will argue for what I believe in. Other people in the party will do the same and we will have that determination at the ALP national conference next April," he told ABC radio.

"This comes down to an issue of principle.

"I also argue that the politics of this are wrong for the Labor Party."

Meanwhile, Mr Ferguson is expected to up the ante in the debate during a speech in Perth today when he outlines the case for scrapping the no new mines policy.

He is due to tell the Australian Uranium Conference that Labor will stand behind Mr Beazley's push for a policy change.

"This is the right and rational thing to do because the truth is Australia is already the second largest supplier of mined uranium in the world," Mr Ferguson will say.

"By 2013, with the planned Olympic Dam expansion, we will be the biggest exporter in the world with the biggest mine in the world.

"Clearly, the Labor Party's existing policy on uranium mining is not limiting the export of Australian uranium.

"It is simply favouring incumbent producers."