South Australian premier out on a limb, as national Labor dithers about nuclear policy
Royal commission tipped to back radioactive dump REBECCA PUDDY, The Australian, Monday 15 February Australia could be a step closer to establishing a nuclear industry today when the interim findings of South Australia’s nuclear royal commission are handed down amid an increasingly favourable political landscape…… it is widely tipped to recommend establishing a high-level radioactive waste dump as a money spinner for the struggling state economy.
The findings are also likely to leave open the option of building a nuclear power reactor in the southern state………..
While Premier Jay Weatherill has committed to responding to the report before the end of the year, his response could be constrained by his party’s national platform. In July it was revealed that Labor had shelved a move to end the party’s opposition to nuclear energy through amending its national platform, which outlines the party’s opposition to nuclear energy.
Labor’s resources spokesman Gary Gray, who was leading the campaign to change Labor’s position, said at the time that the draft proposal to soften the party’s stance on nuclear energy had been set aside while the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission was under way.
The release of the commission’s findings will be accompanied by four technical documents commissioned by Rear Admiral Scarce, which will outline the costs and economic benefits of engaging in the nuclear fuel cycle.
Evidence provided to the commission over the course of its 34 sitting days included a business case that estimated an Australian nuclear reactor would cost between $3 billion and $6bn to build, with operations starting in 2030.
The findings will be released at 11am, with the first of a series of public meetings on the issue scheduled for tonight at the Adelaide Town Hall.
Environmental campaigner David Noonan said anti-nuclear activists would be present at the meeting but would be “deliberately polite”, to ensure the public’s focus stayed on the issue. He said neither of the major parties would advocate for a change in direction with nuclear power or storage until after the federal election, leaving the South Australian Labor government out on a limb.
“There’s a lot of caution there in the political landscape right now,” Mr Noonan said. “Josh Frydenberg will try to get his low-level radioactive waste site over the line before he moves on anything else.”
Dr Jim Green predicts that Nuclear Commission report will be a “foregone conclusion”
Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Jim Green said the contents of today’s findings were a “foregone conclusion” accusing the commission of bias.
“We expect that [the findings] will be mostly interested in the idea of making money out of importing high-level nuclear waste,” he said.
Professor Ian Lowe: – “if the royal commission sticks to the facts and what’s proven, I think they’ll inevitably conclude there’s not a strong case for South Australia getting heavily involved in the nuclear industry,”
Nuclear dump tipped for South Australia amid ‘desperate’ times, ABC News 15 Feb 16
South Australia’s nuclear royal commission is set to release its tentative findings this morning, with experts from both sides of the debate predicting an outcome in favour of a nuclear dump………The issue has long stirred emotions in South Australia, with former premier Mike Rann and former prime minister John Howard at odds over a nuclear waste dump at Woomera for six years before the proposal was ultimately scrapped in 2004.
Current Premier Jay Weatherill is more receptive to the idea and set up the royal commission, saying there were economic opportunities in the mining, enrichment, energy and storage phases of the fuel cycle.
Flinders University associate professor of politics Haydon Manning said the Premier was looking for political gains as the state struggled with unemployment.
“If you understand the mood of South Australia, there is a degree of desperation,” Mr Manning said…….. Continue reading
DR Helen Caldicott on America’s “Waste Confidence Act”
There is a situation in America called the ‘Waste Confidence Act’ which means that the industry has ‘confidence’—confidence that one day they’ll work out what to do with all this radioactive waste. So, the situation is insane, or should I say is “there is a gap between reality and perception of reality.” And it’s extremely serious.
Helen Caldicott to conduct nuclear symposium in St. Louis: ‘The Atoms Next Door’ Examiner, Byron DeLear 14 Feb 16 Byron DeLear: “……….“Why do you think that these federal agencies seem to tend to want to obfuscate and cover-up the real health impacts of this contamination?”
HC: “The federal agencies are not really interested in remediation unless they absolutely have to do it because they’re interested in building bombs and building nuclear power plants—but cleaning-up their mess? That’s not part of their agenda and never has been. The problem is that we’re now moving into the period of nuclear waste—we’re leaving the period or the “age” of nuclear power because it’s not working and cannot be financed; it’s so expensive, and because we’re moving rapidly into renewable energy.
So, now we’ve got, I think its 350,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste accumulating around the world; in Japan, in Britain, in France, in many European countries at their nuclear reactors. Specifically in America and Russia, the waste is emanating from the production of nuclear weapons and this is what we’re dealing with at West Lake. There’s no interest really in the government doing anything about it because they like to invent things and in particular want to work with the atom which is an extreme and powerful form of energy. But cleaning-up the waste doesn’t interest them because many of them are physicists and engineers—they don’t understand the medical ramifications. Continue reading
Tasmanian Greens stick up for civil liberties, and the right to protest
Protest laws under fire as Greens to attempt to have legislation banished from statute books http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/protest-laws-under-fire-as-greens-to-attempt-to-have-legislation-banished-from-statute-books/news-story/a7eec43b2cea4197b229e2a28fbc7c35 February 15, 2016 THE Greens will launch a bid to overturn the state’s anti-protest legislation, which they say is being used to stifle the democratic right to protest.Acknowledging the attempt had little chance of success in the Liberal-dominated State Parliament, Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the legislation needed to be overturned
Ms O’Connor said the legislation — which carries maximum fines of $10,000 and mandatory jail terms for repeat offenders — was being used against citizens protesting logging operations in the Lapoinya Forest — contrary to government promises about its intent.
“In recent weeks up at Lapoinya up in North West Tasmania, we’ve seen the Government’s draconian anti-protest legislation actually target the very people that Paul Harriss said it wouldn’t — mum and dad protesters.
“This Bill is not only highly political and draconian it is unnecessary — there is already legislation in Tasmania for trespass and public nuisance and we want to see this Bill banished from the statue books. “I believe this law will not remain on the statue books in Tasmania forever. It may be subject to a High Court challenge. It really has no place in a civil and democratic society like ours.”
Tasmanian spokesperson for Civil Liberties Australia. Rajan Venkataraman, said the Bill was a severe infringement on the right to peaceful protest. “The provisions in this Act are quite unique to Tasmania,” he said.
“Around most jurisdictions in Australia and indeed many countries around the world, they have provisions regarding trespass and public nuisance and certainly violent protest … but this kind of Act specifically targets protesters and specifically peaceful protesters. “The offences created by the Act and the penalties imposed are extreme and not in proportion to penalties imposed under other statutes, even for quite serious and violent offences.”
Resources Minister Paul Harriss dismissed opposition to the laws.
“It says a lot about the Greens that at a time when the state is a facing a number of serious challenges, they are most concerned about changing the law to allow their mates to try to stop others from lawfully harvesting a regrowth forest.”
World’s best-known climate crusader Al Gore urges Australian Government rethink on CSIRO cuts
FORMER US vice president and climate crusader Al Gore has added to the chorus of protest at plans to cull CSIRO’s ocean and atmosphere research positions, of which as many as 193, or 80 per cent, are in Hobart..
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/worlds-bestknown-climate-crusader-al-gore-urges-australian-government-rethink-on-csiro-cuts/news-story/feda0e3aaaea4aba128e540d5c4de015
Ian Allison: Science frozen out as world warms
THE admission by CSIRO chief Larry Marshall that, after the Paris climate meeting, we now know that Earth’s climate is changing is welcome.
Particularly if most of our politicians are also convinced by the overwhelming scientific evidence. But his implication we know how climate will evolve in the future, and hence can redirect CSIRO climate scientists to other roles, is wrong. Accurate projections of future climate are essential if we are to employ mitigation measures and to adapt to inevitable change. …
The scientific questions about climate are certainly not all answered.
Further research is clearly required and it must involve the CSIRO experts who are world leaders in the field. http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/science-frozen-out-as-world-warms/news-story/30be31bc769d31e9d51e17c29ebca93a
A Constitutional Lawyer examines the arguments for thye UN decision on Julian Assange
Whether or not you believe Mr. Assange is guilty of a sexual offence, whether or not you think he is a self-publicist deliberately resisting arrest, the fact remains that the authorities could use less restrictive means without compromising the initial investigation into the allegations regarding his sexual conduct in Sweden
Liora Lazarus: Is the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Decision on Assange ‘So Wrong’? UK Constitutional Law Association 13 Feb 16 The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention handed down its decision on Julian Assange on Friday 5 February 2015 (A/HRC/WGAD/2015/54). It has been met with almost universal ridicule from a line of British officials, legal academics and the press. The decision has been described as ‘ridiculous’ by the UK Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond, and former Director of Public Prosecution Ken MacDonald argues that describing Assange’s conditions as ‘arbitrary detention’ is ‘ludicrous’. The press is equally incredulous. ………
Julian Assange UN Ruling – Geoffrey Robertson QC Joseph Kotrie-Monson interviewed
Factual background
Mr. Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden to answer allegations of sexual assault. The Swedish prosecutorial authorities have issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) which the UK authorities are bound to implement. Mr. Assange, after arrest of 10 days and house arrest thereafter, was granted asylum by Ecuador after his appeal against the EAW failed. This is when he took up residence in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012. Assange argues that he fears ultimate extradition from Sweden to the USA on the grounds of his involvement in Wikileaks.
This is obviously no small fear, given the sentencing and treatment of Chelsea Manning in the USA, and the decision of Edward Snowden to take up asylum in Russia. The Swedish authorities refuse to grant Assange any guarantee of non-refoulement to the US, and his right to asylum has also not been recognized by the UK or Sweden. ……..
Mr. Assange argues that he is not free to leave the Embassy; he would have to accept the conditions of his immediate arrest, his extradition to Sweden and his subsequent questioning there. He would have to undertake the risk that he would be extradited to the US, and the subsequent risks to his rights were that to happen.
The mandate of the UN WGAD and the test for ‘deprivation of liberty’ Continue reading
Nuclear Royal Commission Special
On February 15 the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission announced its “tentative findings”
And guess what – Surprise Surprise!
After many months of such IMPORTANT pro nuclear persons getting paid large amounts of money to trip around the world, getting expert advice from the likes of France’s near bankrupt AREVA, and the crooked Canadian nuclear hierarchy – they came out with the conclusion that they had already decided upon at the beginning:
AUSTRALIA SHOULD BECOME THE WORLD’S RADIOACTIVE TRASH TOILET!
The subservient media and corporate controlled governments of the rest of Australia have just shut up about this for nearly a whole year, in the pretense that “It’s only a South Australian matter”. They left it to the likes of the nuclear lobby’s puppet “The Adelaide Advertiser” to give information on this purely State matter.
Is it just a State matter? Or is Australia as a whole interested in the Scarce plan for this nation to become the only place in the world to invite in the global nuclear industry’s radioactive poo?
And the only nation foolish enough to think that this will make us prosperous!
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
