Senator Scott Ludlam speaks in Parliament about Australian Nuclear Free Alliance.
This industry is on the way out—not simply because of its internal contradictions and the disastrous toll it inflicts on host communities everywhere it touches down, but because of the extraordinary, selfless and tireless work of the campaigners that I was privileged to spend a few brief days with in Alice Springs. I hope that we have some better news by the time ANFA reconvenes this time next year.
Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (19:37): I rise tonight to make some brief remarks about an event 
that occurred this past weekend just outside Alice Springs: the 15th meeting of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance. It is the 15th anniversary.
The first one occurred in 1997, in the same town in Alice Springs, and the spur for that meeting was also the event that I suppose first got me properly involved in politics. The Jabiluka uranium mine was being proposed and seriously progressed by mining company ERA, at that time owned by North Ltd. A campaign led by strong Aboriginal women in Kakadu—which is a theme I will return to in a moment—called for help from around the country to fend off the activities of a predatory mining company which had the full support of the Howard federal government, which had only been in office for a year or two, and the Northern Territory government.
It was a profoundly important experience for me as a young person to get involved with that campaign, to realise that I was stepping out of what I thought was purely an environmental campaign into a land rights battle led by strong Aboriginal women. Continue reading
Woomera, the size of England, to open for uranium mining
Woomera Prohibited Area Open to Resources Development 04 October 2012 Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Defence Martin Ferguson MP Minister for Resources & Energy Minister for Defence Stephen Smith and Minister for Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson today announced the next step in opening up the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) in South Australia to minerals exploration and resources development.
“The Woomera Prohibited Area has great economic potential, with estimates that more than $35 billion of developments, including iron ore, gold and uranium projects would be possible over the next decade, ” Mr Ferguson said.
“We can now consider new applications for access to the area from companies wishing to explore for minerals,” Mr Smith said…..
Minister Ferguson said that implementing the recommendations of the Hawke Review will help secure the longevity of our minerals resources sector….. The Review is being implemented in three phases – the moratorium on the granting of new non-Defence entrants access to the WPA, a transitional phase involving the development and implementation
of enabling legislation, and a final phase where transitional arrangements are implemented and where permanent arrangements are put in place.Further information is available at www.defence.gov.au/woomera/
Woomera Prohibited Area, Australian Department of Defence The Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) is a globally unique military testing range. It covers 127,000 square kilometres in north-west South Australia, approximately 450 kilometres NNW of Adelaide. It is the largest land range in the world, with a centre line of over 600 kilometres, comparable in size to England….The WPA comprises extensive lands north of the Indian Pacific railway, from Maralinga in the south-west up to its north-west corner in the Great Victoria Desert (that stretches across the SA-WA border), across to Coober Pedy, and west of Roxby Downs down to Woomera in the south-east.. http://www.defence.gov.au/woomera/about.htm
South Australian Native Title Services (SANTS) legal case against govt’s discriminatory law
Aboriginal groups to challenge SA Govt’s legislation on oil, gas licences on constitutional, racial discrimination grounds, Adelaide Now, Valerina Changarathil October 08, 2012
THE State Government’s retrospective amendments to the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act affecting exploration and production licenses in the Cooper Basin area will be challenged in Federal Court on constitutional and racial discrimination grounds.
Aboriginal groups representative, the South Australian Native Title Services (SANTS), will file an appeal to this effect in an ongoing matter set for hearing early next year. Continue reading
South Australian government’s contempt for Aboriginal rights
Native title ‘reforms’ slammed http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/native-title-reforms-slammed/story-fn9hm1pm-1226490977811 BY:MICHAEL OWEN The Australian October 09, 2012 THE government-funded native title service provider in South Australia has lashed state Labor for cosying up to miners with moves to streamline approvals in indigenous areas and strip away Aboriginal rights.
Native Title Services chief executive Keith Thomas accused Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis of adopting an inaccurate and inflammatory position on reforming the state’s Aboriginal Heritage Act, and said the Labor government had revealed its true colours.
“This government has clearly demonstrated its attitude to Aboriginal people with recent moves to remove native title rights in relation to petroleum exploration and production in the Cooper Basin and traditional fishing rights on the Yorke Peninsula,” Mr Thomas said. Continue reading
Greens leader Christine Milne works for lower electricity prices with renewable energy
Milne thinks the government is hopelessly conflicted about energy policy, particularly with Martin Ferguson at the helm
of the energy portfolio.
“He is totally pro-fossil fuels, he has never embraced the renewable energy revolution
Christine Milne’s Plan For Renewables New Matilda, By Ben Eltham. 9 Oct 12, Christine Milne says Martin Ferguson isn’t part of the drive for a clean energy future. In an exclusive interview with NM, Milne discusses how she’ll strive to keep energy efficient, renewable and affordable….I’m here to interview Milne about energy for New Matilda’s Future Shock series. Actually, I had hoped to interview Energy Minister Martin Ferguson and Opposition energy spokesman Ian Macfarlane as well, but neither agreed. Continue reading
“Ferghana radioactive belt” ‘s 812 million tonnes of highly radioactive uranium tailings
Josef Stalin’s nuclear legacy remains in East Kazakhstan Scotsman.com, 9 October 2012 “…..It was over 20 years after the end of atomic testing in the Polygon that the world began to take notice, but Stalin’s legacy may yet have an impact that could threaten future generations across the globe. The mining of uranium to manufacture the atomic weapons tested in the Polygon has left a staggering 812 million tonnes of highly radioactive uranium tailings (waste byproduct). They lie in dilapidated dumps in four of the five Central Asian republics, posing not just an imminent threat to the environment but a potential flashpoint for violence and conflict.
The most dangerous radioactive waste storage sites are concentrated in the “Ferghana radioactive belt”, home to over ten million people in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Flash floods have on several occasions threatened to inundate some of these dumps, which would spread lethal radioactive pollution far and wide. The Ferghana Valley is not only one of the most polluted areas on Earth it is also one of the poorest. Continuing misuse of water resources could become a potential source of intra and even inter-state conflict between the upstream and downstream nations in the zone, in what is a seething hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism.
Stalin’s brutal collectivisation programme and rapid industrialisation of the USSR has created an atomic lake, an imploded mountain, a disappearing sea, a top-secret biological weapons-testing site, hundreds of millions of tonnes of radioactive waste, contaminated food, deformed babies and widespread illness and death. But his lasting legacy could well be regional or even international conflict…… http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/features/josef-stalin-s-nuclear-legacy-remains-in-east-kazakhstan-1-2565733
Free energy fuel- sun and wind- brings down cost of electricity for South Australians
Renewables typically have no fuel costs (free sun and wind), and thus have the lowest short run marginal cost of production.
Renewables ‘lowering SA electricity bills’ SBS WORLD NEWS, 8 OCT 2012, Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power appear to be the impetus behind a South Australian proposal to substantially drop electricity prices, By Dylan McConnell , University of Melbourne
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power appear to be the impetus behind a South Australian proposal to substantially drop electricity prices, just as other states are hiking theirs.
The Essential Service Commission of South Australian (ESCOSA), which regulates retail electricity prices, has released a draft price determination that proposes an 8.1% reduction in the electricity standing offer, (that is, the default retail price that must be offered to South Australians, at a minimum).
The proposal, which follows an ESCOSA investigation into the wholesale energy costs, translates to a reduction of $27.19/MWh, potentially lowering South Australian electricity bills by an average of $160 per household.
And while it is not specifically acknowledged in the determination, this may be the first time the “merit order effect ” of renewable energy sources can conclusively be seen flowing through to consumers in Australia. The Merit Order Effect
There is nothing special about the “merit order effect”. Quite simply, if you introduce more of a product into a market (that is, increase supply) then prices fall. Continue reading
Solar panels best for town home energy: wind turbines better for farms
average wind speed needs to be above 5m/s (18km per hour) to make installing a wind turbine really worthwhile. Ideal locations for wind turbines are in the country, on farms, or on the coast: basically anywhere away from built-up areas. The more buildings around the wind turbine, the less wind there is and the more turbulent any wind present becomes.
While wind power can be ideal on farms, for most suburban settings Energy Matters strongly recommends solar panels.
Backyard Wind Turbines – In Adelaide You Can (For Now) http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3413 by Energy Matters 9 Oct 12, If you live in Adelaide and want to install a wind turbine atop a 10 metre tower in your back yard, it seems to you can do so without the need for council approval. But you may need to be quick. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 