Earth Equity News

Australian Trade Unions Urge Labor Party to Reconsider Nuclear Power. By Paul Kelly and Geoff Elliott, The Australian, June 27, 2008. "The head of Australia's biggest blue-collar union, Paul Howes, and former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr have called for Australia and the Rudd Government to purge its 'prejudices' and embrace a nuclear power industry. Mr Howes, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, told The Australian, 'If we are going to be a green Labor Government, then we have to look at nuclear... The only option for us, in my view, is nuclear. If we are going to reduce our carbon output and still want to have heavy industry then we have to look at renewable and new sources of energy and that means nuclear.' The message from Mr Howes and Mr Carr is that Labor's decades-old policy of rejecting nuclear power must be buried. They represent different elements in the Labor Party: the trade unions and the pro-green position."