No new mines, says McHugh

By Stuart Wax

SYDNEY -- There is no economic or political logic to expanding uranium mining, Labor MP Jeanette McHugh told a meeting of the Eastern Suburbs Nuclear Disarmament Group on June 12.

McHugh, a member of the ALP left faction, was one of the minority on the party's Uranium Policy Review Committee who opposed the recommendation for increased mining.

“Not only is [uranium mining] not clean or popular, but it also doesn't make any money”, McHugh said. “The market is in decline, and just because we open up new mines, doesn't mean that Australia will get a bigger share of the market.”

Furthermore, uranium mining wouldn't provide significant numbers of new jobs. Per dollar spent, manufacturing industry created 15 times as many jobs as uranium mining.

McHugh said the ALP's old anti-uranium policy was highly popular. By changing it in 1984, the ignored the wishes of the electorate.

A policy of “no new mines, no new contracts” has the support of the general public, but the present government appears to be headed towards a policy lacking logic and common sense, McHugh said.

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