Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

More than the major parties combined. That is what the unions spent to get Mr Rudd where he is at the moment, so he and the rest of the government are totally beholden to the union movement. That raises this question of what the government is going to do about uranium, because in my state of Queensland there are vast uranium resources. The AWU, led by Mr Bill Ludwig, has been, as I say, very vocal in asking the government to have a more sensible policy than it currently has. I notice Senator Sterle in the chamber, and I hope he will be participating in this debate, because he can tell me what the Western Australian Labor Party position is. We know the former state government in Western Australia had a very odd policy on uranium mining, but perhaps Senator Sterle could indicate to us what the federal Labor government’s view is on this issue at the present time.

This treaty that has been spoken about today is very relevant to Australia’s position in the world, it is very relevant to the climate change issues we continue to talk about and it is also very relevant to Australia’s ongoing prosperity. As I think Senator Birmingham mentioned, China seems to be okay to trade with but India is not when it comes to uranium. One wonders why this could be. Perhaps it is Mr Rudd’s fascination with China that allows him to make that distinction, but it is one that is very interesting and very germane to the treaty report before the chamber at the moment.

Question agreed to.