Tuesday 4 April 2006
8DDD - ABC Local Radio
Julia Christensen interviews Chief Minister Clare Martin

REPTR Clare Martin good morning.
MARTIN Julia, good morning.

REPTR Now you didn't get here by coming along the Stuart Highway through Coolalinga did you? I hear there's a big traffic hold-up there.
MARTIN No look, I hadn't heard of a traffic hold-up at Coolalinga and I've actually been at work for a while.

REPTR BP Palms apparently there was an accident early this morning, so if you're on the road this morning, we've just heard about it, the traffic's piled up from, well not piled up but banked up from Coolalinga all the way into BP Palms. So if you've got any alternative route for getting to work this morning, then take it.
Clare some interesting news this morning that our uranium company ERA is going to sell uranium to Taiwan.
MARTIN Well Julia I think that with any sale of uranium, the export controls are held by the Federal Government, and certainly, it's up to the Federal Government to make sure that all the kind of non proliferation thresholds are met.
And you know, we have to make sure that that is happening from the point of view of the Territory because it's uranium coming from here I think.

REPTR Did you know about it?
MARTIN No.

REPTR So a surprise to you?
MARTIN The commercial discussions that ERA has are exactly that, commercial ones.

REPTR Are you concerned though that maybe there aren't the right safeguards in place given that Taiwan is not actually a state?
MARTIN Well Julia all I can say is that those export controls are held by the Federal Government and that is certainly a question to be put to the Federal Government and to have them reassure Australians that all those guidelines, the thresholds, the inspections will all be in place.

REPTR What about the broader issue of new uranium mines? You've been a bit coy in the last few weeks about stating your position, although we've heard...
MARTIN ...Oh no I don't, look can I just say not coy at all. The Labor Party's position is no new mines and I have said consistently that is the position.

REPTR Are you coming toward that changing though?
MARTIN Well what I have also said, and this is something I've said a number of times is, that it's never been an easy issue for the Labor Party. The policy has essentially been in place since 1983 and it does reflect those concerns over the storage of nuclear waste, and you'd have to say from a national and international perspective, that is still not resolved. But also the, currently, and look I was listening to an interview about it this morning, that the public discussion about uranium has changed over the last ten years and I think that's reflected in the Labor Party. And there's no doubt that it looks like it will be a point of discussion for the next Labor Party conference next year, the national one.

REPTR But philosophically are you in favour of the policy changing?
MARTIN Well Julia I'm a member of the Labor Party, I support the current policy, but like every member of the Labor Party, you look at the fors and againsts. And I'd have to say that after the kind of fight we took on with the Federal Government over nuclear waste storage last year, I am personally not convinced that we've got that right yet. And when I was arguing with the Federal Government, when they said we've got to have a storage facility somewhere in the middle of Australia a long way from the major population centres, you know, that they still haven't got it right.

REPTR But this is about the Territory's first and foremost resource, uranium, there are dozens of companies currently mining for uranium in the Territory, they'd be very pleased to hear your position on whether that should be allowed...
MARTIN ...Julia can I just say that uranium is one mineral that we mine. We mine bauxite, manganese, gold, we are on the, at the start of being a major gas exporter, so it is one element...
REPTR ...It's a booming element isn't it.
MARTIN There is only one known mine, and that is ERA mine at Jabiru. There is no other established mine and in terms of where the Territory's focus should be, I believe it should be firmly in terms of new energy sources on gas.
REPTR But what do you say...
MARTIN ...Now I support our current mine, I'm a strong supporter of it, we regulate that mine. And so what I have to say very clearly is my position that I support the Labor Party's no new mines policy. I am aware of the current discussion that it will be up for debate in I think, I can't say for certain, at the next Labor Party Federal Conference and certainly I hope I'll be part of that debate.

REPTR So you're not concerned about who we're selling it to, who's mining for it, who wants to mine it in your territory?
MARTIN Well Julia those export controls are the Federal Government's responsibility. And certainly I think every Australian expects the Federal Government to abide by the commitments made under non proliferation, that we are only selling to countries that are signatories to non proliferation, and that they are not using those uranium, they are not using uranium for nuclear weapons. And that is very, very clear. And that's something that Australians are sign up, and I believe every Territorian would want us to sign up to too.