Aus Oppn criticises Rudd for not selling uranium to India
Melbourne: Back from India, Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd today faced flak from the opposition which
said not selling uranium to New Delhi was a "colossal missed
opportunity."
"We are the one of country with the largest reserve of
uranium in the world and when we were in government we agreed
in principal to sell uranium to India, subjecting very
stringent safeguard," said the deputy opposition leader Julie
Bishop.
"We were confident that Australian uranium would be used
for peaceful purposes in India, particularly to expand their
nuclear power generation programme," she added.
In an interview to a TV channel she said that Australia's
loss would be Canada's gain as Ottawa appeared ready to fulfil
the Indian demand for nuclear fuel.
"Now this announcement that Canadians have lifted the ban
on selling uranium to India is a colossal missed opportunity
for Australia because Canada is our competitor in terms of
exporting uranium."
"They will no doubt seek to fill Indian market now it is
a lost opportunity for us on commercial bases."
"I am concerned about the labour government's hypocrisy
on this issue. They have banned uranium sale to India, yet
Kevin Rudd says climate change, caused by greenhouse gas
emissions, one of the greatest moral economic, environmental
challenges of our age," she said.
"India is a developing country with a large population
with huge energy needs. Surely the best way we could help
India reduce it's green house gas emission would be to help it
to expand it's low-emissions nuclear power," she added.
Bureau Report