Antinuclear

National Radioactive Waste Management Bill overrides State and Territory laws

it deems ineffective any Commonwealth, State or Territory law to the extent that any law hinders or prevents the Commonwealth from doing anything necessary regarding the site…This includes overriding State and Territory laws relating to environmental land use, archaeological sites, aboriginal heritage and the control and transport of radioactive material or dangerous goods…….

Nuclear waste storage facility one step closer,  Clayton Utz, 25 May 2010, Australia will soon have a national radioactive waste management facility at a selected site in the Northern Territory, as it looks likely that the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010 will soon be passed. ……it makes provision for the selection of a single site for the establishment and operation of a national radioactive waste management facility to store low grade radioactive waste arising from medical, industrial and research uses……….it allows the Minister, once a site is nominated, to approve, in his or her absolute discretion, land nominated, as a site……………The Bill provides for the acquisition or extinguishment of all rights or interests in the selected site and requires the Commonwealth to pay compensation to those persons whose rights or interest have been acquired or extinguished………
One of the stated objectives of the Bill is to introduce a procedural fairness requirement in relation to decisions made about the nomination, approval and selection of the site…………..Excluded from the new procedural fairness requirement is the existing site at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory, in so far as the nomination and approval of the site is concerned. However, the procedural fairness requirement will still apply to a decision to select the site as the site for the facility…………
……An interesting aspect of the Bill, which it shares with its predecessor (the CRWM Act), is that it deems ineffective any Commonwealth, State or Territory law to the extent that any law hinders or prevents the Commonwealth from doing anything necessary regarding the site, including: selecting a site, conducting activities in relation to the site and constructing, operating and maintaining a facility on the site. This includes overriding State and Territory laws relating to environmental land use, archaeological sites, aboriginal heritage and the control and transport of radioactive material or dangerous goods…….

Why is this significant for nuclear energy law in Australia?

It is significant because, like the CRWM Act, it is an example of how the Commonwealth can use its powers to override certain state and territory laws that would otherwise hinder or prevent the establishment and operation of a radioactive waste facility……….

Although the Bill does not specify the legislative power in the Constitution from which Parliament derives its authority to make such a law, it is possible that the scope of the external affairs power in section 51(xxix) of the Constitution and the power to make laws that are incidental to the exercise of the executive power in section 51 (xxxix) collectively allow a broad scope for the Commonwealth to make laws with respect to issues of nuclear safety. Nuclear waste storage facility one step closer | Clayton Utz

May 26, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics