Media Release | 10 September 2026
Lachlan Hunter MLA
Shadow Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Exploration
Shadow Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Exploration Lachlan Hunter MP has demanded the Cook Labor Government immediately clarify its position on uranium mining, after the Minister refused to deny in Parliament that Labor was reconsidering its ban.
During Question Time yesterday, the Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Exploration Daniel Pastorelli confirmed he had recently met with Cauldron Energy, which is exploring for uranium south of Onslow. Cauldron Energy has received up to $167,750 in taxpayer funding towards uranium exploration programs worth $335,500.
Mr Hunter said the Minister had failed to explain why the Government was subsidising uranium exploration while maintaining a policy that prevented new uranium discoveries from being developed.
“Commercial exploration companies are not drilling out of some altruistic desire to tell the Cook Government what lies beneath Western Australia,” Mr Hunter said.
“They invest in exploration to discover commercially viable resources that can ultimately be mined and developed to deliver returns to shareholders. The Cook Government is now using taxpayers’ money to help a commercial company find and define uranium resources, while simultaneously telling that company it cannot develop what it discovers.
“That is an incoherent position, and the Minister’s refusal to rule out a policy change is farcical.”
When asked directly whether the Government was reconsidering its uranium ban, the Minister refused to answer, instead defending Labor’s funding of mineral exploration.
“If the ban remains Labor’s policy, the Minister should have been able to say so clearly and unequivocally,” Mr Hunter said.
“He was given a direct opportunity to rule out a change and refused to do it. Western Australians are entitled to know whether this was deliberate ambiguity, a policy shift under consideration or, more likely, a Minister who does not understand his own Government’s position.”
Mr Hunter said The Opposition supported lifting Labor’s outdated ban and allowing uranium proposals to be considered on their individual merits through Western Australia’s stringent environmental, safety and regulatory approval processes.
“The Opposition’s position is clear: uranium mining should be permitted where a project can meet the same rigorous environmental, safety and regulatory standards expected of other mining developments,” he said.
“The Cook Government’s position is now the one nobody can explain—not even its own Mines Minister.”
ENDS
