Muckaty nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land – a misguided plan

Plan to use Aboriginal land as a nuclear waste dump is flawed and misguided

Radioactive waste management is difficult, but secretive deals made without Aboriginal Traditional Owners’ full consent are even more worrying. A transparent debate is needed.         Dave Sweeney   theguardian.com, 31 July 2013   This week, federal resource minister Gary Gray is talking radioactive waste with Aboriginal people in remote central Australia.   Six years ago an Aboriginal clan group, the Northern Land Council (NLC) and the then Howard government signed a secret deal to develop Australia’s first purpose-built national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

The commercial-in-confidence plan saw the clan group “volunteer” an area of the shared Muckaty Land Trust for the burial and above ground storage of radioactive waste in return for federal payments, promises and a “package of benefits” worth around $12m. 

The deal was not known about or supported by the rest of the Muckaty Traditional Owners and remains the source of bitter contest, deep opposition and a Federal Court challenge. Now Gray is back to talk with the NLC about a second site nomination on Muckaty. Unfortunately the new plan appears to follow the old pattern of secrecy, exclusion and contest.

The original Howard plan was energetically embraced and promoted by former resource minister Martin Ferguson, despite conflicting with Labor policy and senior ALP figures describing the legislation to make the dump possible as “sordid” and “arrogant”.

Ferguson’s approach to radioactive waste management was characterised by a closed mind and a locked door. Aboriginal Traditional Owners opposed to the dump plan had their meeting requests rejected and correspondence effectively ignored. Unsurprisingly, community confidence in the process eroded. …..

In a 2006 report, an expert UK committee on radioactive waste management stated “it is generally considered that a voluntary process is essential to ensure equity, efficiency and the likelihood of successfully completing the process. There is a growing recognition that it is not ethically acceptable for a society to impose a radioactive waste facility on an unwilling community.”The current Muckaty plan and process is at sharp odds with this common sense and common decency approach.

• It is also in conflict with Australia’s international obligations under the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples which explicitly requires that “states shall take effective measures to ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of Indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent.”

  The Muckaty plan lacks consent at home and credibility abroad. It is flawed and failing and it is time for a new approach – one that reflects and is informed by best practise, sound science and respect.

  Plan to use Aboriginal land as a nuclear waste dump is flawed and …

July 31, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Northern Territory