Antinuclear

Aboriginal landowners’ legal battle against nuclear waste dump

At its most basic, advancing the Muckaty site is a case of politicians in Canberra dumping the most dangerous and poisonous radioactive waste we produce on one of Australia’s poorest and least resourced Indigenous communities.
It has happened without transparent or democratic processes and in clear contravention of international obligations, including under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Minister Ferguson argues that the dump is needed for nuclear medicine – untrue. He argues that it is needed urgently – untrue. And he argues that it is supported by traditional owners – untrue.

Muckaty dumps advances in reconcilation, ABC News, DAVE SWEENEY, 28 March 12,  “…… This week Maurice Blackburn lawyers, with special assistance from Ron Merkel QC and Julian Burnside QC, will be representing Northern
Territory Indigenous elders in a Melbourne courtroom in a move aimed at stopping the Federal government’s plan for Australia’s first purpose-built national nuclear waste dump at Muckaty, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.

To take a step back, on 13 February 2008 Kevin Rudd made a welcome and
long overdue apology to Indigenous Australians as the first order of
business for the recently elected Labor government. In making the
apology, then Prime Minister Rudd named Lorna Fejo as a personal
example of the necessity for a national apology.

Lorna Fejo is a traditional owner of land that includes Muckaty
Station. She is now part of the group that has launched legal action
in the Federal Court challenging the nomination of the Muckaty site.
She has made her feelings about the proposed waste dump crystal clear.
“I’m very, very disappointed and downhearted about that [Muckaty
legislation]. I’m really, really sad,” she said.

“The thing is – when are we going to have a fair go? Australia is
supposed to be the land of the fair go. When are we going to have fair
go? I’ve been stolen from my mother now they’re stealing my land off
me”.

At its most basic, advancing the Muckaty site is a case of politicians in Canberra dumping the most dangerous and poisonous radioactive waste we produce on one of Australia’s poorest and least resourced Indigenous communities.
It has happened without transparent or democratic processes and in clear contravention of international obligations, including under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. If Muckaty were to
become home to Australia’s radioactive waste it, would be a body-blow
to the reconciliation process set in motion with the apology to the
stolen generations.

It is crucial to realise that what is being proposed is Australia’s
new ‘greenfield’ approach to radioactive waste management. However,
instead of developing a credible process the government has been
obsessed with identifying a vulnerable postcode. To place Australia’s
worst radioactive waste on the lands of some of its poorest people –
without broad community understanding or consent – is not cutting edge
scientific thinking, robust policy or best practice.

It is a heavy-handed 1950s-style approach to Indigenous land and
rights and a quick and dirty attempt to deal with a long lasting and
dirty waste. Martin Ferguson, the Minister who has most actively pushed the dump plan, is using the emotive argument that it is necessary for Australia’s nuclear medical waste.

However medical experts dispute this claim. Louise Emmett, a physician
from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney says, “in the vast majority of
nuclear medicine practices the storage issue is not particularly
current, in terms of what we keep is short half-life, up to sort of
eight days half-life, so it would be difficult to take that long
distances for storage.”
Nuclear radiologist Dr Peter Karamoskos uses even plainer language in
response to Minister Ferguson’s justification for a nuclear waste dump
on medical grounds. “That’s a furphy that Minister Ferguson has been
promulgating to get the public on side through an emotive campaign of
disinformation.”

What we know to be true is that most of the waste slated for Muckaty
is currently located at two secured and dedicated federal facilities.
One is on the Woomera defence lands in South Australia and the other
at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisations (ANSTO)
Lucas Heights reactor complex in southern Sydney. Assessments have
shown both sites can continue to host this waste while we dump the
Muckaty plan and get serious about a responsible approach to
radioactive waste management….. instead of radioactive divide and
rule we need an expert approach, removed from the politicians but
engaged with the community, to examine and assess the most credible
and responsible way to manage Australia’s radioactive waste in the
long term. We need to bring diverse stakeholders out of the trenches
and to the table.

Minister Ferguson argues that the dump is needed for nuclear medicine – untrue. He argues that it is needed urgently – untrue. And he argues that it is supported by traditional owners – untrue. No matter what
the code three strikes means you’re out…..
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/03/28/3465800.htm

March 28, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News