Message from the Premier of Western Australia Tuesday (28 June)

On the 28th of June the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of WA staged a colorful protest outside the Perth Convention Centre where over a luncheon hosted by the Institute of Energy a spokesman for the nuclear industry presented the case for Nuclear-power for Australia. (www.aie.org.au/events_index.htm ) A message of support was read to the protesters by the Hon Louise Pratt MLC on behalf of the Geoff Gallop Premier of Western Australia:     Message for the meeting of the Anti-Nuclear Alliance   At every stage of the nuclear fuel chain - the mining, enrichment, fabrication, use and final storage or disposal of uranium and thorium - human health and the environment are endangered. It is for these reasons in 1999 Labor, as parliamentary opposition, introduced a bill that subsequently resulted in the creation of the Nuclear Waste (Storage) Prohibition Act 1999. This act was introduced to prevent Pangea Resources from establishing a worldwide storage facility for high-level nuclear waste in Western Australia . This anti-nuclear stance was later reinforced in my Government's first term, with an amendment to the Nuclear Waste (Storage) Prohibition Act to protect the community from Commonwealth plans of a national nuclear waste dump in Western Australia . My Government also remains committed to its unambiguous stance against uranium mining, Under my Government, all mining leases issued since June 2002 have specifically banned uranium mining, My Government acknowledges that, with our State's increasing energy needs, the dangers of greenhouse gas driven climate change, and with predictions of a rapid decline in Australia's oil self sufficiency, we need to look to alternative sources of energy supply. However we are not considering nuclear energy as an option. Nuclear energy Is illegal, unsafe, uneconomic and unwanted in Western Australia . Thank you for your continued support.   Kind regards, Geoff Gallop MLA Premier of Western Australia

the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia email robin@anawa.org.au