Antinuclear

Australian govt plays waiting game against nuclear veterans

Maralinga veterans still battling for justice ABC News 18 Dec 09 By Nance Haxton
While the Maralinga Tjaratja people are excited and relieved about this week’s land hand-back, the veterans who served at the British nuclear testing site are still fighting for compensation…………..

However, the thousands of Australian servicemen involved in the series of atomic tests there in the 1950s are still battling for their compensation and are turning to the British courts for justice.

Only 2,000 servicemen are still alive from the more than 8,000 who worked on the British nuclear testing program at Maralinga and sites off the West Australian coast between 1952 and 1967.

Many of them have now joined a British class action fighting for compensation…..

South Australian Nuclear Veterans coordinator Avon Hudson says those who have survived deserve due recognition for what they endured.

“Fifty years have gone by. We’re all at the end of the road and they’re stalling for time,” Mr Hudson said. “But time is not on our side – it’s on the Government’s side………..

Mr Hudson says the veterans would happily drop their court actions against the British and Australian governments, if the Australian Government provided them with some compensation.

“The only thing I can assume is that stalling for time is waiting for us to all die and they won’t have to give anybody anything,” he said.

“Well, it’s not just us, it’s our children and grandchildren that has suffered from this – that we’ve passed on our damaged genes, the DNA that was damaged due to radiation exposure.

“They will go on fighting. Let me tell the minister, that he will not be left off the hook; either him or any other minister in the future.”

Maralinga veterans still battling for justice – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

December 21, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, legal