Secret plans for troops on wharves

THE Fraser government drew up secret plans to send troops on to the wharves to circumvent industrial action, two decades before police fronted picketers in the landmark waterfront dispute.

THE Fraser government drew up secret plans to send troops on to the wharves to circumvent industrial action, two decades before police fronted picketers in the landmark waterfront dispute.

The Mary Kathleen uranium mine in Queensland's far northwest, part-owned by the commonwealth, had by the late 1970s become a lightning rod of union discontent over the Coalition's support for uranium mining.

But newly released documents show that opinion in federal cabinet had also hardened, setting the stage for a confrontation.

"MKU must be maintained as an operating mine," says a cabinet paper dated October 1977. "If it fails as a result of union pressure, the effect on the domestic industrial relations scene and on the international front would be irreparable from the Government's standpoint."

A month earlier, the ACTU, led by Bob Hawke, had set a November 15 deadline for the government to commit to a referendum on future uranium mining, warning unions would refuse to mine or handle the ore after that date.

By October, the government was internally canvassing the use of the defence forces to pre-empt or break up expected union blockades of the Mary Kathleen mine, or the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, which stored up to $140 million in ore.

Cabinet explored options for transport of ore ahead of the deadline, by road, by Chinook helicopter or even chartered jumbo jet, to meet the mine's export contract commitments.

"In the absence of some development such as a mutual accommodation with the ACTU, troops will be required on the wharves in Queensland in the month after the ACTU's deadline of 15 November," the cabinet paper says.

Australia was beset by industrial action in 1977, with air traffic controllers, postal and power workers striking, and unions banning yellowcake shipments.

The government had begun retaliating with tougher workplace laws and was prepared to go further if planned talks with the ACTU failed to avert work bans after November 15. It would "acquaint (Mr Hawke) with the ramifications of confrontation over this issue, i.e. inevitable use of troops, uranium-specific legislation, emergency legislation, etc", cabinet papers say.

Even the 1998 waterfront dispute - in which police confronted picketers in a seminal battle between companies, unions and the Howard government - stopped short of the use of the defence forces.

Mr Hawke's position was precarious, given he personally was inclined to support uranium mining, as were many unions.

He later convinced a February 1978 ACTU conference to adopt a compromise that ruled out any new mines but allowed existing uranium contracts to be fulfilled.

The debate erupted again last year, along similar party lines. The Howard government went into the federal election backing nuclear power while Labor strongly opposed it.