Antinuclear

Senator Scott Ludlam addressing Senate on radioactive waste dump plan for Northern Territory

So the federal government is in enormous trouble and I suspect what is in the offing is probably a humiliating backdown. No matter what the outcome of the Federal Court, this is no way to treat the people of the Northern Territory

 were pleased to be able to secure an amendment after negotiations with the government, which was also supported by the coalition, to ensure that no international waste is stored in Australia.

Senator Scott Ludlam addressing the Senate 22 Aug 12, “…The issue I want to address directly is the idea that the best way to support economic development and Aboriginal advancement in the Northern Territory—and there seems to be a bizarre and nasty cross-party consensus about this between Labor and the CLP—is to dump radioactive waste on them…..

Directly after the 2007 election, responsibility passed to Martin Ferguson and the Howard agenda continued. It was shameful. The Howard government radioactive waste legislation was described by ALP MPs, in the run-up to the 2007 election, as ‘sordid’—and sordid it is. The idea that the best way to promote economic advancement in the Northern Territory is to post six of the loneliest security guards in the country to guard against people tampering with radioactive waste for the next three centuries absolutely beggars belief. They waved around a $12 million cheque in the community, north of Tennant Creek, which wanted a decent road and some community education support for their kids. That $12 million cheque was dangled in their faces in exchange for hosting what they thought was going to be a rubbish dump. Those were the words that were used—’rubbish dump’.

As I said, I have been involved with this campaign for quite some time. We have seen some very strong support from right across the board. I would like to acknowledge NT Chief Minister Henderson, who has defied his federal colleagues over this issue—and of course the NT Greens have been steadfast in the Barkly region, in Alice, in Darwin and right across the Northern Territory. But the Chief Minister is fighting an uphill battle, because he is fighting his own federal colleagues. This is a Labor Party radioactive waste dump, but it follows exactly the same template as the one which was announced by the coalition in 2005.

It was extraordinary, when listening in to the House debates and when the debate on the Radioactive Waste Management Act came through the Senate, to hear one coalition speaker after another taking credit for the idea and bagging the government for simply cutting and pasting. On that I agree with them. I agree with my colleague Senator Scullion, who claims some credit for the Mukaty waste dump, when he says that the ALP had just copied the coalition’s policy—because they did. The only people who have been standing up and supporting the community on this one from day one have been the Australian Greens.

It is made all the more disappointing by the actions of the ALP when they were in opposition.

This is obviously a campaign that has a long way to run. Matters do not get to the Federal Court on a whim. While Minister Ferguson at the behest of the Northern Land Council continues to insist that one person effectively is able to speak for that country, we are in regular contact with a large number of traditional owners from the complex and quite tightknit family networks up there saying that of course traditional responsibility and custodianship over the area is shared and it is not a simple matter to simply draw a rectangle out of the area that five family groups signed on to as the Muckaty Land Trust and say it is just one person.

So the federal government is in enormous trouble and I suspect what is in the offing is probably a humiliating backdown. No matter what the outcome of the Federal Court, this is no way to treat the people of the Northern Territory…..

What is happening in the Federal Court is that the traditional owners are wishing to explain that the Muckaty Land Trust was granted to five groups in common due to interconnected responsibilities and songlines. The government of course has isolated a small number of people and declared them the exclusive owners of the designated land. We fought the bill for two years and it did pass this March, but we were pleased to be able to secure an amendment after negotiations with the government, which was also supported by the coalition, to ensure that no international waste is stored in Australia. But the impact on the traditional owners of Muckaty continues, as it has now for seven years since John Howard’s law was first passed—exploiting that same constitutional weakness that Territorians are now more than sick of hearing about—to dump radioactive waste on their land. ……

The very last thing that people need is to hear about the nation’s most toxic radioactive waste not being safe enough to be parked where it is at the moment, under the active care and maintenance of the staff at the Lucas Heights facility in Sydney, but somehow magically being transformed into something completely safe if it is trucked 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek and dumped in a shed surrounded by barbed wire. The people of the NT do not buy it. They have supporters all around the country, and I know this full well, who do not buy it either. The government has come down completely the wrong track, backed by the opposition, and the Greens will continue, if we have to, to be the only voices standing up in opposition to this flawed and completely misconceived facility….”

August 23, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics