Changes

In May 2006, WWF Australia became the first Australian environment group to suport uranium mining in Australia. WWF CEO, [[Greg Bourne]], told ''The Australian'' that "we have been mining uranium and exporting it for many years and we're doing more because demand is going up, whether people like it or not," he said. "The key issues are if we're going to be a nation exporting uranium, we have to know absolutely it's only being used for peaceful purposes and waste products are being stored safely." [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19019395-601,00.html] WWF Australia's stance on uranium mining has been particularly controversial because WWF has received significant funding from uranium mining companies (see "corporate funding" below). ==Government Funding==WWF has been criticised by the [[Australia Institute]] for being too close to the Howard Government. [http://www.tai.org.au/Publications_Files/DP_Files/DP68.pdf] WWF receieved a five-fold funding boost from the federal government between 1996 and 2004, at the same time as government funding to almost every other environment group has been slashed. [http://www.newmatilda.com/home/newsdetailarchive.asp?NewsID=167] ==Corporate Funding==WWF Australia receives funding from a number of large corporations. Controversially, it received $1.2million from uranium mining company [[Rio Tinto]], prior to publicly taking a strong pro-uranium mining stance. [http://users.nlc.net.au/mpi/mm/editions/mining_monitor_vol5no1.pdf] [http://frogsaustralia.net.au/documents/doc_8_wwf_frogs_partnership.pdf]