Martin Ferguson is demonstrating a very un-Labor like trait . . .he's talking common sense.

"Mr Ferguson said the government's own clean energy strategy was his first priority, but he was also "very much focused on what is happening outside Australia". "Other countries are making the progress in nuclear opportunities that we have to make in terms of our own clean energy," he said.

"If those clean-energy options are not proven to be viable commercially . . . there will be a far more seriously focused nuclear debate in Australia.

"If we don't make the breakthrough in the period 2015-2020, then what is the alternative for Australia?

"It doesn't matter if it's carbon capture and storage being viable, geothermal, solar thermal or whatever."

Mr Ferguson backed the right of Labor members to debate the nuclear power issue at the party's national conference in December. "Open discussion is good for the party."

Whether there are enough intelligent people in his party to have an open discussion is questionable. Still, hopefully they won't be around for too long.

Deputy Prime Minister Bob Brown please ring your office.

One smart Aussie company is about to start mining a huge uranium deposit in Wyoming. It has already lined up customers in the US nuclear industry, so it won't have to worry about Australia's stupid policies. Others are in the process of doing the same thing in Africa, if the Chinese don't beat them to it or buy them up.

Please delete wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2011 at 10:04am:


Sadly debates are only set up to keep the minions happy.  Look at the one of Afghanistan, talk about WOFTAM.  Decision was made long before any debate happened.

Also, a debate on gay marriage.  Whats the point in having it as the agenda is already set for a "no" with no conscious vote option on the table.

I used to think parlimentary debate was a good thing.  Sadly my views have changed.  I reckon we could do away with question time.  No one answers the questions asked of them unless its one from their own party, and it makes us as a nation look childish and petty.

Energy generation is an issue affecting all Australians. Why not discuss all potential systems?  Not to do so is reminiscent of the method of presentation of ACC, anyone who isn`t a faithful believer is howled down like a medieval witch.   

Al Gore isn`t the Messiah.

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UMMMMMM, we are discussing it.
It has been discussed for years.
It has been shown that it is not a financially viable alternative in OZ.
Even if we started planning a plant today, it would be 20 years before it was in operation.

Nuclear to me has always been the prime highlight of how far behind the rest of the world Australia can be at times.

We have had nuclear since I was a kid in England.

We had Oldbury, Hinckley Point A, B and now C all within distance of my hometown - completely safe, completely accident free and producing emissions-free power for the country.

But you ask Aussies, who admittedly suffer from cabin fever of being the other side of the world to everyone else, and they conjure up thoughts of Mad Max and Chernobyl.

Nuclear is safe, low emissions and sensible.

Get involved.

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That's right. Mad Max took place in Australia.  Maybe they're afraid of the Liberal party.  It could be a social democracy addiction.  Minnesota is has a social democracy addiction 50 years+  before the rest of the United States had same thing.  The Minnesota Farmer Labor Party was democratic socialism.  Rumor it came from Norwegians.