Time to sack Martin Ferguson, Minister For Energy, but only Nuclear Energy
Eisenhower said, in 1961 ” we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex” Nothing has changed, except that it has got worse.
Australia continues to be USA’s deputy sheriff. And the USA’s government continues to be beholden to the arms industries. In today’s news items, we find that secret government nuclear plans have been developed, from the 1950s to the present . And, conveniently for the government, files relating to these plans have been lost, from the National Archives.
It would be just too simple, and too foolish, to think that the present Labor government has really ditched Howard government plans for Australia as the world’s nuclear waste dump. Though Labor remains publicly opposed to the nuclear fuel cycle coming here, there are plenty of Labor heavies who are salivating at the prospect.
Notably Martin Ferguson, who should surely be sacked. As Energy Minister Ferguson uses his power to sabotage renewable energy, promote uranium mining, and remove mandated emission standards from new coal plants.
The Climate Change conference at Durban> As far as I can tell, the agreement reached there makes sure that no agreement will be made for several years, and even then, no agreement will be acted upon until 2020 or later. This result is being spinned as some kind of winner for climate change action.
On the positive side, the previously politically conservative Australian Red Cross has come out with a vengeance, joining Red Crescent in a well-planned push for a Nuclear weapons Convention. It’s pretty clear that governments, in the grip of corporate power, can do little to bring about nuclear disarmament. But Non government Organisation are becoming organised and influential, world-wide, and their influence will matter. – Christina Macpherson
p.s. also – us whiteys better wake up – the discriminatory Northern Territory Intervention measures will now apply to us too
Secret plans by Australian government to set up international nuclear waste dump
a five-square-kilometer space would be built on the ground and a 20-square-kilometer space would be created 500 meters below the ground to store 75,000 metric tons of radioactive waste……The candidate area spread from Western Australia to South Australia
A plan to build a final disposal facility surfaced again in 2006 …The government that was then led by Prime Minister John HowardNuclear countries came close to solving problem of radioactive waste Mainichi Daily News. (By Haruyuki Aikawa, Japan December 13, 2011 LONDON — “…The Pangea group of experts funded by nuclear energy-related companies and general contractors from many countries had been secretly planning to build an international disposal site for spent nuclear fuel in Australia. However, the plan fell through after an Australian news organization exposed it.
Secret nuclear weapons plans for Australia – but files now mysteriously missing from National Archives
Treasures of Australia’s past lost from the National Archives by:Herald Sun Patrick Lion From:The Daily Telegraph December 13, 2011 HUNDREDS of rare files – including secret plans for nuclear weapons and personal files of prime ministers – have gone missing from the library responsible for preserving Australia’s history.
Over the past two decades the National Archives has lost at least 748 historic items, some dating back more than 150 years, from its official collection of documents, government files, letters, recordings and photographs.
Among the missing files on nuclear weapons and uranium from the middle of last century is a 1956 report, The Clandestine Introduction Of Nuclear Weapons In Australia…… http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/treasures-of-australias-past-lost-rare-items-missing-from-the-national-archives/story-fn7x8me2-1226220439496
Martin Ferguson, Australia’s Energy Minister, pushes nuclear, sabotages renewable energy
Ferguson stokes nuclear debate, ABC Radio P.M. December 13, 2011 Matt Peacock, The Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has urged the states to privatise their power assets. He’s also reignited the debate on nuclear power. The Greens say Mr Ferguson’s undermining the Government’s attempts to introduce renewable energy and most state governments have brushed aside Mr Ferguson’s push for privatisation.
That’s enraged the Greens who say that nuclear power is a dead end and that the white paper deliberately ignored the potential of the renewables. Stephen Dziedzic reports from Parliament House……
STEPHEN DZIEDZIC: The Federal Opposition’s energy spokesman Ian Macfarlane is also an advocate for nuclear power. He says the Coalition won’t consider nuclear while the community remains hostile to it, but that may change in the future…
IAN MACFARLANE: We haven’t had any active consideration of nuclear energy in Australia but the fact remains that nuclear energy is the one base load technology that is clean energy…
STEPHEN DZIEDZIC: The Greens are furious with Mr Ferguson. They say he’s biased against renewable energy and the figures the draft white paper cites on the cost of solar are out by a factor of at least two or three.
And the Greens Senator Christine Milne says Mr Ferguson is deliberately undermining the Government’s clean energy policies.
CHRISTINE MILNE: This long awaited energy paper it’s really a blast from the past. I mean Einstein once said that you can’t solve problems with the same thinking that created them.
And here you’ve got Martin Ferguson with the thinking that created the problems we’ve got with climate change coming out with predicting that the future is going to be based on coal and gas at the same time as the Prime Minister has announced that the reason she is giving Greg Combet industry and innovation is that she wants it linked to climate energy efficiency and the low carbon future. So these two policy areas are in complete collision course…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-13/ferguson-stokes-nuclear-debate/3729494?section=business
France’s nuclear company AREVA – business plunging in nuclear and uranium projects
The company has lost contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros….The company says its earnings will be
hit by a reduction in the number of new reactors being built, which will also depress the price of uranium…
.. the market is now shrinking. Areva said it expects to make an operating loss of between 1.4 and 1.6 billion euros (1.9 and 2.1 billion dollars) in 2011 mainly due to the depreciation of African mining assets…..
all activities in Namibia are to be suspended….
Fukushima hits French nuclear giant hard, Monsters and Critics, By Ralf E Krueger Dec 13, 2011“……….Areva’s new chief executive Luc Oursel announced the suspension of a planned nuclear enrichment plant project in Idaho in the United States, as well as several projects in Africa. Areva has also suspended plans to expand capacity at its reprocessing plant in La Hague, northern France. Continue reading
Aboriginal homelands vulnerable to land grab, as Northern Territory Intervention is widened
As part of the 2007 “intervention” legislation, Aboriginal land granted under the 1976 Land Rights Act was compulsorily acquired by the government through five-year leases. These will be replaced with “voluntary” forty-year leases that remove all previous restrictions on how town camp and “Community Living” land could be used.
Over the past four years the government has attempted to press local communities to sign long-term leases by cutting funds for essential services to the homeland communities.
Australia: Labor to extend NT “intervention” for a decade, World Socialist Website, By Susan Allan, 12 December 2011 The Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard is intensifying its social austerity cutbacks with a raft of proposed new laws that continue the Northern Territory (NT) “intervention” for another ten years and expand its punitive measures to include all welfare recipients, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, Australia-wide. Continue reading
Australia participating in 23 States monitoring radiation in Pacific Ocean
Considerable volumes of radioactive contaminated water entered and
polluted the Pacific Ocean following the March 11 Nuclear accident. It
raised concern among countries in the Pacific region that radiation
releases may reach and damage coastal zones with possible consequences
for communities and economies.
IAEA Project To Monitor Radioactive Substances In Pacific Ocean Region (RTTNews) 13 Dec 11 – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is implementing a Technical Cooperation (TC) Project for countries
throughout the Pacific Ocean region to monitor radioactive substances in the marine environment in the wake of the release of radioactive particles into the Pacific from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. Continue reading
France’s nuclear industry in trouble – security breaches,costs, opposition
activists remained inside the Cruas site for 14 hours before being caught
Electricite de France (EDF) shares have slumped (EDF) 37 percent since the Fukushima disaster, on concern about the amount of investment needed to keep French reactors running safely in the coming years.
At the same time, the opposition Socialist and Green parties are campaigning to close 24 reactors by 2025 to cut dependence on atomic power.
France’s Biggest Nuclear Breach Raises Alarm as Support for Reactors Wanes Bloomberg By Tara Patel – Dec 13, 2011 Just after 6 a.m. on Dec. 5,under cover of darkness, nine Greenpeace activists cut through a fence at the Nogent-sur-Seine atomic plant 95 kilometers (59 miles) southeast of Paris and headed for a domed reactor building.
They scaled the roof and unfurled a “Safe Nuclear Doesn’t Exist” banner before attracting the attention of security guards. Two remained at large for four hours.
On the same day, two more campaigners breached the perimeter of the Cruas-Meysse plant on the Rhone, escaping detection for more than 14 hours while posting videos of their sit-in on the Internet. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 