Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on report No. 94 of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties and wish to deal primarily with the agreement with the Russian Federation on cooperation in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but will also say a couple of words about the other treaty that is under consideration.

The report tabled today shows the absolute confusion and division that reigns supreme in the Labor Party when it comes to uranium and nuclear policies. It is quite amazing to see the way the Labor Party ties itself up in knots and contortions over uranium and its usage, export and mining. We see today just how totally divided the Labor Party clearly remains when it comes to uranium policy in Australia because today we have yet another new position from the government when it comes to uranium mining and the export of uranium. Today we have a report from the government dominated treaties committee, the majority recommendation of which is that we not ratify a treaty with the Russian Federation for the peaceful use of uranium—quite amazing. Mr Acting Deputy President Bishop, you being a Western Australian, you would have followed the debate in your home state over uranium mining in recent weeks and you would have seen how ineffective the Labor Party position taken by the former Premier was there. We saw Labor for many years tie itself up in knots over the three-mines policy, about how many mines we should have. Three mines seemed to be enough, apparently.