MARK RILEY: Anthony Albanese’s journey from uranium denier to supplier
MARK RILEY: Once stridently opposed to the export of Australian uranium, prime ministerial pragmatism has made Anthony Albanese change his tune.
An angry mob stormed past security at Sydney’s Darling Harbour Convention Centre and rushed towards the stage, screaming in protest as Anthony Albanese addressed the 2011 ALP national conference.
It soon became evident, though, that the protesters and the then-infrastructure minister were actually in furious agreement.
Both were campaigning against the sale of Australian uranium to India.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“I say that until we have resolved the issues of nuclear proliferation and we have resolved the issue of nuclear waste, we should not change our platform to expand our commitment to the nuclear fuel cycle,” Albanese thundered.
The 46th ALP conference was debating an eventually successful motion by then-prime minister Julia Gillard to overturn the party’s platform and allow exports of yellow cake to countries such as India that were not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The most searing contribution came from Albanese’s left faction ally, senator Doug Cameron, who said: “I don’t want Labor’s light on the hill to be a green, pulsating nuclear light!”
Albanese would have enjoyed that line. It was a variation of one he had first delivered during a uranium debate at the 44th ALP national conference shortly before Kevin Rudd swept John Howard from office in 2007.
Arguing passionately in favour of Labor’s no new mines policy, Albanese had told that conference: “The light on the hill is not the glow of radiation from a nuclear waste dump!”
On Friday, Anthony Albanese will become the Australian prime minister who supercharges uranium exports to India by clearing impediments that have stifled the 2014 supply agreement struck under Tony Abbott.
It has been quite a journey from uranium denier to uranium supplier.
But this deal will be finalised against a very different economic, environmental and geo-strategic landscape to that which fired Albanese’s trenchant opposition in the past.
India’s future energy blueprint is based on an ambitious plan to open another 18 nuclear reactors in the next five years.
Its eventual goal is to increase domestic production of nuclear energy tenfold to 100GW by 2047 to power its booming AI industry.
Tech giants Amazon, Meta and Google have unleashed an investment tsunami in India, capitalising on its low-cost and light regulatory environment to build massive data centres that will turn the emerging sub-continental giant into the cloud centre of the world.
India’s march towards global tech dominance will require enormous supplies of uranium to fire its nuclear power industry.
And Australia has the world’s largest uranium reserves, accounting for about a third of total global supply.
But India is also a nuclear-armed state, which raises continuing concerns about the possible dual-use of Australian uranium for nuclear weapons.
The Albanese Government is satisfied that the protective framework underpinning the original Abbott-era agreement will prevent Australian yellowcake from being used in that way.
The deal specifies that the uranium can only be used for “peaceful, non-military purposes” in civilian facilities that operate under strict International Atomic Energy Agency protocols.
The Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office also keeps a close eye on the supply chain under a bilateral tracking agreement.
India has also addressed deep concerns about its disposal of nuclear waste by adopting a closed fuel cycle that reuses spent fuel and vitrifies high-level liquid waste into glass canisters that will be buried in deep geological repositories.
Though these assurances are accompanied by a not-so-small point of practical apprehension.
Those deep geological repositories haven’t even been dug yet.
On a strategic level, Australia sees great significance in becoming India’s uranium supplier of choice.
The deal strengthens the security bonds the nations share within the so-called Quad alliance with Japan and the US.
And it achieves some of the Quad’s unspoken strategic objectives by reducing India’s historical reliance on Russia for nuclear fuel and technology and further dissuading it from becoming a future critical minerals customer of China.
It also means billions and billions of additional export dollars for Australia to help compensate for slowing growth in the coal and gas sectors as they compete in an increasingly renewables-dominant energy environment.
But ideological concerns remain within Labor about how the deal adds a glow of radiation to the party’s legendary light on the hill.
For a party shaped by fractious debates on uranium mining and exports and membership brawls over nuclear weapons and energy, it is a major departure from its bedrock belief.
And it should make for some interesting discussions as Anthony Albanese now prepares to headline Labor’s 50th national conference in Adelaide later this month.
