Antinuclear

Rudd Govt can over-ride Northern Territory

it is too useful to the commonwealth as a zone for decision-making.

Dreams of statehood are buried in a sparsely populated area * NORTHERN TERRITORY: Nicolas Rothwell, The Australian, February 27, 2010 THIS week’s announcement by federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson that the commonwealth’s preferred site for a national radioactive waste depository is Muckaty station in the heart of the central desert foregrounds a bitter truth about Northern Territory politics.

For all the speech-making over the waste site in the Darwin parliament, and all the grandstanding by the Territory’s Labor politicians, power remains firmly with Canberra. The Northern Territory is unlikely to make progress any time soon in its bid for statehood; it is too useful to the commonwealth as a zone for decision-making.

March 2, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Northern Territory, politics, uranium | aboriginal, antinuclear, Australia, nuclear, nuclear wastes, renewable, uranium