Antinuclear

Northern Territory’s fight against nuclear waste dump

Support for statehood is mounting, as residents become outraged at the way they say the NT’s constitutional weakness has enabled the Government to force a nuclear waste dump on central Australia….…

Only one chance to state our case, Northern Territory News, LARINE STATHAM | March 5th, 2011 THE TERRITORY is mounting a second bid for statehood even as the Australian Greens seek an important easing of federal control – specifically, the scrapping of legislative powers enabling a single federal minister to overturn laws passed by the territories.

The first referendum on statehood failed in 1998, with 51.4 per cent of Territorians voting “No” to the NT becoming a state.

That bid had followed a political stoush in 1997, in which the federal government overturned the world-first pro-euthanasia legislation passed by the NT Parliament.

Speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly and chairwoman of the NT 2011 Towards State 7 steering committee Jane Aagaard said she opposed euthanasia but believed the NT should have the right to make laws for itself. “It should not be that the Commonwealth comes in over the top of a democratically elected parliament and overturns their laws,” she said.

Federal Labor on Tuesday announced it would back the Greens’ push to allow the NT, ACT and Norfolk Island to make their own laws without undue interference from a single minister.

But that’s now up in the air, after a number of MPs voiced their concerns that the Greens’ Bill could result in territory governments one day legalising euthanasia or same-sex marriage……………

Ms Aagaard said the Greens’ Bill meant legislation from any of the territories could still be disallowed by both Houses of Federal Parliament. “At least if it’s debated in the Federal Parliament, that is a transparent process, where people of Australia can actually see what’s happening.”

Becoming a state would take the NT’s independence a step further, largely protecting it from interference from Canberra.

Support for statehood is mounting, as residents become outraged at the way they say the NT’s constitutional weakness has enabled the Government to force a nuclear waste dump on central Australia…….

CLC director David Ross said the council was not interested in statehood until a royal commission was held into the “mismanagement and extorting” of expenditure of indigenous affairs funds by successive NT governments since self-government in 1978. The steering committee held 50 forums across the NT last year to inform the public about the constitutional differences between states and territories.

The roadshow also aimed to dispel myths about how statehood might change funding arrangements between the NT and the Commonwealth or affect the size of the Upper and Lower Houses in the Federal Parliament.

“One of the things which really surprised me is the interest of Aboriginal people in remote areas, largely because of the Commonwealth’s intervention,” Ms Aagaard said.

“What we were repeatedly asked was, if we’d been a state, would the Commonwealth have been able to intervene in our communities? People are feeling very disempowered by the process of the intervention.

“Aboriginal people in particular have seen that their personal rights have been infringed.”

She said it was concerning that the votes of Territorians in a national referendum, such as the one proposed on whether Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be recognised in the Commonwealth constitution, would not carry the same weight as the votes of those who live in a state.

Only one chance to state our case | News | NT News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

March 7, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Northern Territory, politics