Proponents of Muckaty nuclear waste dump show racism and discrimination against outback people
the continuing suggestion that remote Australia is a great place for nuclear waste, sums up what Australians who believe it is a good idea, think of rural Australians, both white and black.
Nuclear waste dump in ‘the middle of nowhere’ – Tennant Creek, Fiona Lake, 22 July 11, If the vitriolic anti-bush comments in relation to the live export ban didn’t convince rural Australians that there is a sizeable slab of urban Australia who despise them (though urban residents rely on rural residents for food & export income), then the recent online forum comments regarding the planned nuclear waste dump near Tennant Creek, surely will. Discussions on the merits of the Muckaty station nuclear waste dump has also given voice to the racists who imply aboriginal people aren’t smart enough to figure out for themselves that nuclear waste isn’t something they want in their backyard, at any price.
Reading from the top down, nearly every second forum comment reads like a list of anti-bush sentiment by inner city residents. Since the forum has closed, here’s a selection, with comments added:
From someone who disparages the idea that an outback nuclear dump isn’t a good idea: “Currently this waste is being stored in suburbia. If it isn’t safe to store in the outback in isolation in a specially built facility, how come it has been stored in Australia’s larges city for decades?” If it has been ‘safely stored’ in suburbia for decades and it poses no threat, then the blindingly obvious question is: why bother moving it all the way to Tennant Creek, why not leave it exactly where it is, close to the source of creation?
“In the middle of nowhere is the only place for nuclear dumps, plus geological factors I presume.” Thank you so much for describing inland Australia as ‘nowhere’, that’s just delightful. Descriptions such as ‘in the middle of nowhere’ are only ever made by city-born Australians who think their throats are cut if they’re more than 30 minutes drive from the nearest patisserie selling baguettes instead of bread rolls and that ‘out west’ means Parramatta or Ipswich. To those who were born in the bush, cities are the most polluted places on earth and places of least significance. Remote Australia is the most pristine environment on the continent so it beggars belief that it is deemed a great idea to turn it into a dumping ground for the world’s most deadly, long-term dangerous, waste. If you wanted to store nuclear waste in the part of Australia that is already the most polluted and of the least environmental significance, you’d leave it in the heart of Sydney….
All-in-all a most depressing topic – to me the continuing suggestion that remote Australia is a great place for nuclear waste, sums up what Australians who believe it is a good idea, think of rural Australians, both white and black.
The fact that the Muckaty station nuclear waste dump is being promoted by the Australian Labor Party, sums up how little they care for the minority groups who are the least well off in our society. So much for being a party for ‘workers’ and ‘battlers’. More like a city-based old boy’s club.
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