By Pip Hunter
Pragmatism rather than principle was what prevented the ALP from expanding its three-mine uranium policy at its national conference, according to many environmentalists. The "pre-cooked" four-day conference, for which business executives forked out $3000 a head for special access to party heavies, endorsed all the Keating cabinet's decisions including overturning opposition to privatisation and introducing quotas for women.
The only excitement in what was otherwise a slick show for the corporate sector was the manoeuvring over the uranium mining policy, which in the end did not come to a vote. The only issue that did overturned the ban on mineral exploration in national parks. Sid Walker from the NSW Nature Conservation Council said the fact that the vote was lost by one, and two delegates failed to turn up (NSW opposition leader Bob Carr's proxy says he couldn't find the room) shows that "the conference was an absolute farce".
"This was the ALP right throwing a bone to the mining industry", was how Walker read it. Senator Christabel Chamarette from the Greens (WA) concurred. She told Â鶹´«Ã½ that the pro-exploration decision was simply a backdoor method of allowing the pro-uranium forces to prepare for when Labor gives the go-ahead to more uranium mines.
Uranium games
Prior to the conference, Prime Minister Paul Keating was careful to play down his support for the expansion of the three-mine policy. A decision, he said confidently, would be made at the conference.
But as the conference opened, it seemed that the pro-uranium lobby was having trouble mustering its numbers. Then when it looked like the right-wing Australian Workers Union delegates had struck a deal with the federal government (which, in return for expanding uranium mining, agreed to support the AWU's fight against the push by mining giant CRA to impose non-union enterprise agreements) the stage was set for some action. But in the end, the Victorian right, led by state opposition leader John Brumby, split the pro-uranium forces by not supporting a change.
"Keating and the right-wing numbers crunchers tried hard to change the policy, but they were forced to back off when it was clear that they were not going to win", John Hallam, the uranium policy coordinator for the Movement Against Uranium Mining, told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
With polls indicating that a majority of the population still opposes uranium mining, it was obviously risky for the ALP right to ram through the change. The ALP has marginal seats to worry about (state and federal). Even if the factional deals had worked out, it was obvious that some, like Brumby, who is trailing an unpopular premier, got cold feet.
Democratic Socialist Party environment spokesperson Graham Matthews told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that Keating is happy to bide his time on uranium. "While the pro-uranium lobby would have preferred an expansion, Keating knows Labor can, in the interim, buy some 'greenie points' by arguing that Labor's three mine policy is more progressive than the Coalition's pro-mining policy."
Matthews pointed out that a majority of the ALP's anti-uranium forces walked out of the party after the 1983 pro-uranium decision and the sale of yellowcake to France despite nuclear tests in the Pacific. "Those who remained in the party were prepared to compromise, and are not in a strong position to oppose further mines."
But Hallam believes that the conference decision on uranium was based on more than just political expedience. The winning strategy, he said, was that "the greenies outlobbied the Labor right". Frantic phone calls and mountains of press releases to faction leaders, Hallam said, were ultimately responsible for the back-down by Â鶹´«Ã½ of the right.
"The greens can nudge politicians into changing their minds for the right reasons", Hallam said. "But it is obvious that some politicians have genuine convictions on this issue, because otherwise they wouldn't have disobeyed their fixers."
"I didn't see the back-down [on uranium] as a win", Chamarette said, arguing that the government's decision to set up a committee to work on the timing of a policy change indicated that the environment movement had a lot of work ahead of it. "The conference extinguished the candle of hope that the ALP have the political will to revert back to an anti-uranium policy."
Strategy
While Hallam believes the best way to ensure Labor does not adopt an open slather uranium policy in three years is to rebuild the mass anti-uranium movement, he said that even when the movement had considerable political clout during the 1980s, it wasn't enough. "When the mass movement existed, we were losing. We weren't having an influence on policy then as we are now", he told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
Matthews disagreed. "The size and spread of the peace movement, which during the mid-1980s could mobilise up to 100,000 people on Palm Sundays, was the crucial factor which inhibited the ALP from moving faster than it did on its pro-uranium mining policy. And even now, I think Â鶹´«Ã½ of the ALP are hesitant to overturn the three-mine policy precisely because of the widespread anti-uranium sentiment which still exists. That is a measure of the success of the mass mobilisations."
Matthews told Â鶹´«Ã½ that lobbying rather than mobilising fits neatly into Labor's agenda, and that if Labor — or its national executive — is to be prevented from changing the uranium policy, environmentalists have to remobilise. "The lack of democracy, played out in graphic detail at its national conference, should remind us about the real nature of this party."
In Walker's opinion, the uranium back-off amounted to a holding operation. "The critical issue is whether the industry will be phased out." Walker said that claims from the pro-uranium lobby that if Australia's yellowcake output were to double by the next century, Australia would earn up to $1 billion a year in foreign exchange were highly misleading.
"Roxby Downs, the biggest uranium mine in the world, still has 200 years of life, and is currently operating under capacity. There is still a lot of slack in the world market, especially with the large amounts of uranium being mined in the former USSR." He added that the fact that the ALP has reacted positively to the Indonesian government's plans to set up 12 nuclear reactors in an earthquake-prone zone, is cause for alarm. "The Indonesians didn't need Australia's uranium to push ahead with their plans."