Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Uranium Royalty (Northern Territory) Bill 2008. On the surface this bill may appear little more than a sensible rearrangement of royalty regimes in the Northern Territory. This would not normally be seen as having any great impact on the country. However, this bill does in fact have several extremely significant wider ramifications, of which I shall speak.

Firstly, there is the signal of the growing independence of the Northern Territory. There has always been an idea that somehow the Territory is a poor relation of the other states and somehow less able to run its own affairs. This is highlighted in the issue of uranium. When the Commonwealth government granted the Northern Territory self-government in 1978 there were some areas of control kept by the federal government, one of which was the ownership of uranium. This meant that royalty arrangements were made on a case-by-case basis, making it almost impossible for there to be any coherent and accurate assessment by companies as to the viability or otherwise of potential projects in the Northern Territory. Anyone who knows anything about developments, especially on the sort of scale needed with these projects, understands that the more certainty companies have, the more likely the project is to proceed. It is also often the case that mineral deposits are not just uranium. In some cases there are other deposits as well—copper, for example. Therefore, freeing up these deposits of uranium may well enable other valuable mineral resources to be mined as well, further adding to the wealth of the region, which is even more important than ever in these times of economic gloom and doom.

Therefore, this is quite a watershed moment for the Territorians. The first consideration is: what sort of revenue are we talking about? Energy Resources of Australia, ERA, produces about 11 per cent of the world’s uranium oxide, coming entirely from the Ranger mine in the Alligator River region of the Northern Territory. It is sold only for the generation of electricity under strict international safeguards monitored by the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Northern Territory has also given the green light for exploration on the Angela and Pamela prospects, which are said to contain more than 12,000 tonnes of uranium oxide, worth up to $2.5 billion. Of course, as world demand for uranium increases, the price is driven up. One source says that, after a three-year low of around US$40 a pound in early November 2008, the uranium price has soared to US$53 a pound only two months later. Long-term prices are expected to be around US$65 a pound.

The second important aspect of this bill is the revenue flow to local Aboriginal communities. I think it is fair to say that in the last few years there has been more scrutiny than ever of Aboriginal communities—how their people live and how royalties can be used to provide real benefits for their people. These royalties can be used to provide essentials such as better housing, good quality water and other important services such as education, health and community services. Hopefully, the mistakes of the past will remain in the past and this new opportunity will be taken with both hands by local leaders and provide palpable and permanent benefits for the local Indigenous population. There are also other benefits. A recent newspaper article said that ERA employs approximately 500 full-time employees, with 18.5 per cent being Indigenous employees, a figure that has nearly doubled in the past two years. The company also promotes indirect employment opportunities, facilitates skill development and supports Aboriginal business enterprises.

With the change in the WA government, local Indigenous leaders held a conference late last year. This was aimed at educating traditional owners and industry on uranium issues, the environment and native title implications. Hopefully, in the near future, WA Indigenous communities will start to reap the benefits which will soon be flowing to the Northern Territory people. This revenue flow and the employment and other opportunities that come with it hold great potential for Indigenous people. It should provide an encouraging and inspirational showcase of what can be achieved when people of goodwill get together and work for the benefit of all. As I said in my speech of a year ago, we need to break the cycle of dependency, vulnerability and despair pervasive in some Indigenous communities. These royalties could be the circuit-breaker, enabling the next generation of Indigenous Australians to reap the benefits of mainstream Australian society.

The third important aspect of this bill, and possibly the most significant, is the realisation by most members of the government that nuclear power is again being seen as the energy saviour of not just developed but developing countries. For far too long Labor Party policy on uranium mining has been at best contradictory and illogical and at worst detrimental to the nation’s economy. Its intellectually incongruous three-mines policy put the intelligent, pro-resource development members of the Labor Party at constant odds with ideological Luddites who are still carrying banners and mouthing slogans of the Cold War. Thankfully, sanity has prevailed, due in no small part, I suspect, to several sensible senior ALP figures who realise the three-mines policy is untenable and ludicrous. Their force of argument has finally dragged most of the rest of the ALP into the 21st century

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has moved to end uncertainty over the Olympic Dam project with an expansion worth $7 billion to produce copper, gold and uranium. The Premier said the mine was valued as a ‘trillion dollar resource’. Of course, Mike Rann as ALP president pushed hard for Labor to scrap its ‘no new mines’ policy last year.

There is still the recalcitrant rump of naysayers in the WA Labor Party but, thankfully, we now have a Liberal-National government there, which has wasted no time fulfilling an important election promise and opened up my home state to the huge potential which uranium mining presents. Current WA ALP leader Eric Ripper had his ears well and truly pinned back by the federal Minister for Resources and Energy, who accused him of patently false and irresponsible scaremongering on the issue of uranium mining. This is the same minister who was in the Northern Territory about 30 years ago working for the union representing uranium miners.

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