Australian mining companies are lobbying to remove Aboriginal right to veto mining on their land
Northern Territory Review of Aboriginal Land Rights https://www.amec.org.au/northern-territory-review-of-aboriginal-land-rights-4030 Association of Mining and Exploration Companies
December 10, 2012
Part IV of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (1976) is under review to ensure that the regulations are fulfilling the purposes that were intended. AMEC, in consultation with various members that operate in the Northern Territory, have responded that significant and often unnecessary delays are inherent in the current system.
The main recommendations from the AMEC submission is the removal of the right of veto from traditional owners and the instating of the “Right to Negotiate” system that is used under Native Title Acts. Using this system, negotiating is not threatened by 5 year moratoriums and both parties have an opportunity to negotiate in good faith. Letter and submission to NT Aboriginal Land Commissioner re ALRA review
How the Western Australian govt and mining companies sabotaged Aboriginal land rights
By December 1984, the government’s commitment to national land rights
was in disarray as the mining industry dug in and Mr Burke introduced
legislation that did not permit any veto over mining or exploration,
restricted Aboriginal applications to land with little economic
potential, retained the state’s power to resume land and imposed a
four-year time limit on claims.
Miners and Brian Burke sank land rights hope
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/cabinet-papers/miners-and-brian-burke-sank-land-rights-hope/story-fngr9pxq-1226545827125
BY: STUART RINTOUL The Australian January 01, 2013 A CONCERTED
campaign by the mining industry, backed by the Burke Labor government
in Western Australia, left the commonwealth’s commitment to national
land rights in disarray by the end of 1984. Continue reading
Past Queensland govt wanted uranium enrichment, and no federal control over uranium industry
the Queensland Government had told the
Commonwealth it wanted control over dealing with nuclear materials in
its state.
In a submission to the Federal Government on the Atomic Energy Act
1953, the Queensland Government argued any new legislation should
reflect the state’s right to control the minerals.
Caboolture was earmarked for Qld uranium plant by Joh, Caboolture News,
Ava Benny-Morrison 1st Jan 2013 CABOOLTURE was
earmarked for a potential uranium plant by the Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Government, previously confidential cabinet documents have revealed.
The papers showed that a long-running, secretive investigation into a
plant in Australia identified Caboolture as well as Ipswich as
notional sites.
The Bjelke-Petersen Government had its vision for uranium exploration
in Queensland in full swing in 1982, pitching its interest to be home
of an east coast enrichment plant. Continue reading
World’s “background radiation” doubled after Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe
Geneticist Valery N. Soyfer, founder of the former Soviet Union’s first molecular biology laboratory, analyzed the 1986 report to the IAEA, which has since been condemned as a cover-up. Dr. Soyfer says that if only 100 million curies were vented, then world “background radiation doubled at once.”[10] This claim was unsupported by accompanying evidence, butif “background” was doubled by 100 million curies, then it was multiplied 180 times by the release of Chernobyl’s “full inventory.”
Nineteen months after the disaster, in Nov. 1987, the U.S. government officially doubled its estimate of the “background” radiation to which we are exposed every year
Chernobyl at Ten: Half-lives and Half Truths, Chernobyl, by John M. LaForge ”…… In the first part of this article (Spring 1996 Pathfinder) I compared the recent trivialization of Chernobyl’s consequences to news accounts that appeared soon after the explosions and fire. For example, while the commercial press now tell us that the disaster “spread radiation across parts of Europe,” the fact is that the federal EPA announced in mid-May 1986 that, “Airborne radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is now so widespread that it is likely to fall to the ground wherever it rains in the United States.”[4]
In this part I look at how much radiation Chernobyl evidently added to the “background,” at official skewing of the inevitable long-term effects, and at recent reports of its human health consequences. Continue reading
Unpopularity of USA missile testing in Australia
US missile tests backfired for PM BY: BRENDAN NICHOLSON The
Australian January 01, 2013 WHEN Bob Hawke gave the nod to an American
plan to fire some of their new MX intercontinental ballistic missiles
into the ocean 220km east of Tasmania, the Labor leader made one of
the biggest miscalculations of an illustrious career.
His decision triggered a wave of renewed anti-American feeling,
protests and, cabinet documents reveal, a carefully planned backdown
by the Labor government.
In 1981 the Fraser government had told the Americans it was fine for
them to carry out the tests but, probably not wanting to startle the
Tasmanians, Malcolm Fraser’s team neglected to tell anyone about this
undertaking. Continue reading
Carr wants North Korea response, The Age January 1, 2013
David Wroe AUSTRALIA will push for a tougher international response
to North Korea’s recent missile tests when it takes its seat on the
United Nations Security Council this week. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 