The Labour Government in Australia, under Prime Minister Julia Gillard, seems to have had a bumper 2011.

One of the first major Carbon Tax legislations was passed in November, they have also fought and won for a new scheme to tax the super-rich, a move which last year cost former PM, Kevin Rudd, his job.

On December 4, Labour announced another ‘victory’, namely that of making a 180 degree turn on their former position on trading uranium with India.

The vote passed 206 to 185 in favour of lowering the trade barrier between the countries.

Trade Minister Craig Emerson says safe guards will be put in place before any trade takes place, which will commence in early 2012.

Australia had previously banned the sale of uranium to India because it does not recognize the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Only two other countries in the world have the same stand point, Pakistan and Israel.

Israel has its own booming nuclear industry, but as soon as Labour announced its back flip on selling to India, their neighbours, Pakistan, voiced that they would be more than welcome for the same deal. With Pakistan and Israel being on the list of countries not to supply nuclear material to (again, the only two on the list put forward by the Nuclear Suppliers Group), the Labour Government will be right not addressing this issue for some time.

With an estimated 80-100 nuclear warheads in their arsenal, India claims to have enough fissile material for up to another 150, a number that may well grow with the importation of uranium from outside for certain programs, while tapping their own supplies for others. In fact, the Indian government has wanted to import uranium to do exactly that.

Of course, India has stated that any uranium sourced from outside their country will only be used for energy generation and other ‘civilian’ forms of nuclear energy. This was one of the conditions that helped the US Government see the light and begin selling uranium to India in 2006.

The US deal helped Labour come to the conclusion that to not trade with a country such as India with a material such as uranium, makes obvious economic sense. The Sydney based think-tank, The Lowry Group, were reportedly, also highly influential in the deal.

However, with India not recognizing the NPT or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, their thinly veiled arms race with Pakistan, and the lax efforts to conform to international safeguards and internal monitoring, plenty of people who aren’t miners or politicians or lobbyists have these and more reasons to be upset.

Australia has the largest known deposits of uranium on the planet, the harnessing of which will see dollars flow into South Australia and the Northern Territory, the states where uranium is currently mined.

Queensland has retained its stance against uranium mining in their state, but with exploration companies being given licenses to find out the sizes of deposits (in QLD as well as NSW), suspicions the same that have driven Coal Seam Gas protesters to action are being pulled out into the open.

Various anti-nuclear groups around the country have expressed open disgust and have called for an independent inquiry and protests in the New Year.

 

By Chard Currie

Email: chard.currie@gmail.com

 

SOURCES

Crikey.com

news.com

wikipedia.com