Tania Constable interview with Jaynie Seal News24 Weekend Newsday

TOPICS: uranium mining, nuclear power, skilled migration

E&OE

JAYNIE SEAL: Recent research conducted by the Minerals Council of Australia shows strong support for uranium mining in NSW. For more, joining us live is Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable. Tania, great to see you as always. And interesting timing, just having the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, on. When we were talking about AI and all of the ramifications in the multifaceted situation that we have to look into. He mentioned the lack of energy that we have in lifting the uranium bill. Your survey shows most NSW voters support uranium mining if it helps address climate change. Tell us more.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, great to be with you, Jaynie. Yes, I think that Matt has really nailed it with a view that we need as much energy as we can get in Australia. We need to have coal-fired power stations, we need gas-fired power stations. And importantly, lifting the prohibition on uranium, on nuclear energy, within the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. That’s the first step towards nuclear power in Australia. And if we want to reduce emissions drastically, then that’s the way to do it. And that’s what NSW voters are saying in our recent polling.

JAYNIE SEAL: And yeah, the whole climate change angle was quite interesting in your survey, wasn’t it? Because you know the policies that One Nation and the coalition have, not really climate change is on there, on the top of the agenda, would you say? But more so for the left parties, who don’t really want uranium.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, that’s right. I think still climate change is important to voters around Australia, but it’s a long way down; well and truly after cost-of-living pressures, housing, not enough housing in Australia, we are seeing really high energy prices. Food prices are very high. And of course, with the Gulf War that we’ve seen petrol prices and diesel prices are very, very high. But climate change is still in there, and we need to see if we want to bring down emissions, the way to do it is to have a portfolio of energy sources, bring on renewables. Bring on nuclear energy as quickly as we possibly can, but we still need the traditional sources of coal and gas to make that reliable, affordable energy is there as well as clean energy.

JAYNIE SEAL: And for our sovereignty as well, wouldn’t you say?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Absolutely. We need to make sure that in the, as we’re seeing geopolitical tensions around the world and we are, of course, we’ve seen Iran, the United States, the Ukraine and Russia, the geopolitical forces that are in our own region. There’s always concerns here. We need to build as much as we can in Australia, but partner with the rest of the world where that makes sense to do that.

And that’s what we’re doing. We’re partnering with Japan and Korea. They need our gas, and they need our coal. They need our uranium for their nuclear. We’re partnering with the United States on critical minerals. All of these countries are important to secure our supply chains. That’s really very, very important. You can’t do everything by yourself. You need to partner with other countries around the world and energy is the area that is strategically important.

Countries want to speak to Australia; they want to speak to our government because we have energy sources available and we have critical minerals. That gets us in the door, that gets us invited to the G7, and it gets us, importantly, being recognised when we have meetings of the G20. And you know that our Prime Minister, when he’s travelling the world, these are the issues that get him into the door.

JAYNIE SEAL: Yep. Energy security is national security, as we say so often. Australia’s largest export industry is mining, as you well know. And you’ve backed the Federal government’s decision this week to give greater priority to skilled resource workers under the new migration plan.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, that’s right, we have, because we want to see a plan that makes sense. We don’t think that we should be bringing in more people than Australia can handle. We need to make sure that we’ve got the housing, the infrastructure, the services available, before we bring people into Australia. We need to make sure that the skills that are coming into Australia are skilled migrants wherever we possibly can. And we need to make sure that Australians have confidence in the system, that we are auditing the system. We need to make sure that migration is controlled. That’s really very important. That will bring. I think that plan of action will make sure that we get the right people in Australia.

I heard Matt Canavan say that we need to make sure that we’ve got workers available in the regions, particularly for agriculture, who need the working visas, the short holiday visas to help with harvest, for seasonal crops in agriculture. We couldn’t agree more. It’s important for the regions to get the right workers into these industries, into agriculture, into mining, into construction, into the tourism sector, into the retail sector. But that needs to be balanced and I think that the government made a reasonable approach to that with the announcements that they’ve made this week.

JAYNIE SEAL: Well, our next guest has got plenty to say on backpackers. He owns a pub and he’s in North Queensland, so we look forward to hearing what he has to say. And we always appreciate you joining us and hearing what you say as well, Tania Constable. Thank you so much.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Great to be with you, Jaynie.

JAYNIE SEAL: Great to have your company.