The suggestion by Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at Adelaide University, that South Australia should become a nuclear energy facilitation state offering all phases of uranium on sale to the world is music to the ears of many people.
Baby boomers will recall that nuclear protesters of the nineteen seventies with their outrageous nuclear-charged emotional politics succeeded only in deferring the mining of uranium at Roxby Downs by ten years. Their doomsday prophesies sucked South Australians into agreeing to leave one of the world's most valuable resources in the ground until the price of uranium crashed. When the inevitable mining and sale of yellowcake commenced it was worth a mere third of what it had previously been.
The hare-brained bellyaching of these self-proclaimed intellectual giants succeeded only in costing the people of this state vast wealth in jobs created, royalties received and other economic spin-offs. Meanwhile, the rest of the world made atomic leaps into the modern era.
We should never forget that a high percentage of those protestors were in receipt of government benefits in the form of student allowances or the dole. They demanded the fruits of wealth but recklessly assassinated our available options for wealth creation. What does that say about their intellects? The fact was also plainly obvious to the general public that many of these people gained immense feelings of personal power from having created chain reactions of dissent. What does that say about their true motives?
We South Australians have wound up a backward state because we embraced backward mentalities. That occurred because we vested political power into the hands of small-minded pests given to irresponsible ear-bending.
Let us do that no more. The members of our government were willing to have votes counted in their favour. Let those votes now count for something solid in tough decisions and decisive action to place South Australia on an equal economic footing with the rest of the world.
Uranium is here to stay. Are we?
