Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate to the chamber and to Senator Ludlam that, on all of his amendments, our approach is that we have to keep in context what the Uranium Royalty (Northern Territory) Bill 2008 is about. This bill is not about approving uranium mining in the Northern Territory. Uranium has been mined in the Northern Territory for decades. This bill is relatively simple in its scope. It simply seeks, appropriately, to bring the arrangements regarding royalties with respect to uranium into line with the royalty arrangements for other minerals in the Northern Territory. That is an appropriate and sensible thing to do in our view, based on the steering committee’s report that I referred to yesterday. We as an opposition do not believe that we should be encumbering this bill with other agendas. We are satisfied with the arrangements that have been in place for decades with respect to uranium mining in the Northern Territory, as they pertain to remediation, accountability, the supervising scientist and the other matters to which Senator Ludlam’s amendments refer. Even if there were matters, hypothetically, that needed attention, this would not be the bill for that purpose. This bill has a very simple purpose, as I said. It is one that we support. This bill should not be encumbered with other agendas, so we will not be supporting these or other amendments.