How the Democrats sealed deal on nuclear power ban

IT WAS a little legislative clause, negotiated in secret and easily ticked off by the then prime minister – and it changed Australia’s energy policy framework forever.

But the 1999 legal amendment that banned nuclear power in Australia was intended as little more than a “tidying up exercise”, according to the senator who proposed it. Former Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison said the ban was one of hundreds of amendments her party negotiated for the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, many of which were agreed to by the then environment minister, Senator Robert Hill.

“(The nuclear power ban) was not central to the 300 or so amendments that we managed to negotiate,” Ms Allison said.

“It was just bringing the commonwealth into line with the states, which all had bans, and still do I think. It was a tidying up exercise more than anything. I don’t recall it being at all controversial.”

Ms Allison said the negotiations with Mr Hill took quite a long time, but all amendments were signed off by prime minister John

Howard. “I think everything went to him for his OK,” she said. “I wasn’t in cabinet, so I don’t know what the discussions were, but I think John Howard was keen to get (the bill passed) and certainly Robert Hill was. There were so many amendments and so much discussion on most of them, but not of that one.”

The passage of the Bill put Australia in a unique position as the only country in the world that exports uranium but legislatively forbids its domestic use.

Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor with the ANU College of Law, said nuclear issues had long been a “hot potato” in Australian politics, and the ban came at the end of many years of public concern over anything nuclear.

By comparison, the response to the Prime

Minister’s recent nuclear submarines announcement had been somewhat muted, Professor Burnett said.

“The nuclear submarines raised eyebrows, but not to do with nuclear per se,” he said.

Announcing the submarine deal, Mr Morrison stressed it would not change Australia’s stance on nuclear power, but others believe the acquisition could soften up public attitudes.