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Volume 7, Wednesday November 17, 2010
Liberals reinforce support for mine Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond visits Roxby for the first time By Celeste Lustosa
I
sobel Redmond, Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Shadow Cabinet visited Roxby Downs for the first time on Monday, November 15. The South Australian Parliamentary Liberal Party held a Community Cabinet at the Roxby Downs Council Chambers followed by a community morning tea at the Dunes Café. Ms Redmond told The Monitor she aimed to meet and listen to local business people, council and community leaders to discuss the issues that affect them and our community. “I believe that it’s very important to meet people where they live, placing yourself in a better position to gain an understanding of the concerns that are important to them and the region,” Ms Redmond said. Whilst in Roxby Downs the SA Liberal’s will also meet with BHP executives for a briefing and a tour of Olympic Dam. “We had an invitation from BHP to come up and look not just at what’s here now but what potentially may be here if the expansion goes ahead. And if it goes ahead it will provide a genuine economic boost for the future of the State, so we are very keen as a Shadow Cabinet to have a good understanding on what’s involved,” Ms Redmond said. The Opposition Leader was emphatic to say that the Liberal Party was always supportive of uranium mining. “The current premier Mike Rann opposed the uranium mining. We have always been pro uranium mining and we believe there should be a stronger relationship between the mining sector, the community and the
State Government. And State Government’s role is to ensure that the entire infrastructure that is necessary is in place to enable people to live and work here,” she added. Ms Redmond also said that one of her big concerns with mining in the State is to make sure it’s benefitting our State. “We don’t want to have lots of fly-in, fly-out people rather than the established communities in South Australia,” she pointed out. She also said that we need to have the right opportunities here so the youngsters don’t move away. As for mining activities to go ahead in Woomera, Ms Redmond said that the fact that there’s potential for rocket testing should not stop the use of the area in terms of getting the resources available and making them accessible. “The Woomera Prohibited Area we believe is a vital area for mining and apart from a narrow corridor there’s no reason, in our view, why we shouldn’t be able to come to a proper agreement to enable mining to go on because we understand there’s an indication that there’s fairly good resources there,” she said. A visit to Woomera wasn’t scheduled this time but the group would possibly visit Andamooka and as mentioned above, a visit to BHP and a mine tour was scheduled during their visit. “We are on a fact finding mission and we have every reason to support and want the expansion to go ahead but a number of us haven’t been here before so we getting our head around on the size of the expansion and to contemplate that here will be the biggest mine in the world is just extraordinary,” Ms Redmond concluded.
Roxby Hourglass Jewellers Manufacturers of Fine Jewellery
Liberal Leader Isobel Redmond makes a point about education with Roxby Area School principal, Kath Macalister at Monday’s visit by the Shadow Cabinet.
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