Rogue Ronan to challenge Bligh on mining policy

State Labor Government MPs will be forced to vote on their party’s own policy to ban uranium mining under two private members bills to be introduced into Parliament by rogue Greens defector Ronan Lee.

The Member for Indooroopilly controversially quit the ALP last weekend, claiming it had abandoned the environment.

In the first of a promised raft of private members bills to be introduce to the Queensland Parliament, Mr Lee will challenge the government to back his anti-uranium mining and uranium exploration platform.

"The government already says it supports a ban on uranium mining," Mr Lee said.

"What this allows them to do is support a very sensible proposal which is to give the people of Queensland an opportunity to scrutinise and watch any future decisions to change that situation."

Mr Lee said his bills were designed to make Queenslanders aware of Labor’s contradictory policies of banning uranium mining, but allowing uranium exploration.

"Currently the government says you should not mine uranium in Queensland, but at the same time we are not really keen to have that enshrined in Queensland law," he said.

Mr Lee said he wanted to prevent a scenario that occurred in Western Australia where the ALP did not legally ban uranium mining before losing office.

"It allows the government to get things out of the Cabinet room. Let the people of Queensland to see what is going on and make sure that decision about uranium mining are not taken behind closed doors."

Mr Lee said he would have a "range of discussions" with the government and the State Opposition before the bill was introduced to the next sitting of Parliament in Cairns from October 28.

"Some preliminary drafting has already been done and it will be with Office of Parliamentary Counsel by this afternoon and I hope to have a finished piece of legislation to you sometime next week."

Western Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlum, the Greens’ national spokesperson on uranium issues, said the move by Mr Lee was important.

He said the Greens had a private members bill that did not have the support of the former Western Australian Labor government, led by Alan Carpenter.

"In 2002, the State Government brought in a policy ban very similar to what Beattie did in 2005, which was a ban on uranium mining, not on exploration itself," he said.

Senator Ludlum said the messages to the industry were mixed.

"We said ’Just legislate and allow the mining industry to know that and get on do what it is that they do’," he said.

Senator Ludlum said as the Carpenter Government faced defeat, it came back to the Greens and asked to support the private members bill.

"They said they changed their mind, we will go with what our original policy was, we will legislate and then it was too late, and then it was too late."

The new Western Australian government, led by Colin Barnett, supports uranium mining.