Antinuclear

Adnyamathanha Traditional Land  Association again confronts Resources Minister Matt Canavan on nuclear waste dumping

AdnyamathanhaTraditional Land  Association (ATLA) RNTBC Email ceo@atla.com.au    ICN 3734 ABN 14 146 238 567 PO Box 4014 Port Augusta 5700 Ph 0429900222   29/5/2018

To. Minister Canavan  PO Box 6100  Senate  Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

per email senator.canavan@aph.gov.au Minister Canavan [Minister.Canavan@industry.gov.au]

Dear Minister

I again write to you with regards to your departments treatment of ATLA.

I have already stated on numerous occasions, ATLA is the prescribed body corporate in terms ofour Native Title and we are an Aboriginal Regional Authority with the State Government and recognised as the peak organisation with regards to any heritage issues in our area. We are the representative body for Adnyamathanha people.

However, your department continues to use divide and conquer tactics with regards to the nuclear waste dump in our land.

We raised very grave concerns in relation to the Heritage Assessment and we had no choice but to pull out of this very early in the process. We have no faith in the process or the assessment and we will not accept any findings from this flawed non-inclusive process.

You visited our land recently and didn’t even contact ATLA.

It is not true that Bruce Wilson tried to contact me, I have had no communication with him in relation to your visit. The first I knew about you being here was when I was told you were meeting with individual Adnyamathanha people at Mamma Lou’s café in Port Augusta, that is only about 500 metres from my office in Port Augusta! You then added to the insult by entering our land with no contact with us.

I call on you as Minister to tell the truth and remove these lies from your website.

ATLA is a vital part of this whole process we are the Traditional Owners and we say NO!

Now you are going to hold some sort of vote for the people who live very close to Wallerberdina, however, this is Adnyamathanha land and ALL Adnyamathanha people must get the chance to vote.

I demand you include all Adnyamathanha people who are on the electoral roll in this vote!

This process has been flawed from the start, you continue to ignore our concerns and opposition to this dump and the very least you can do is include us in the vote. I believe there are at least 1500 Adnyamathanha people eligible to vote.

This is our land, ATLA is the peak body, show us respect as the Traditional Owners.

Please take action on this matter with some urgency and include Adnyamathanha people in the vote.

Yours sincerely

Vince Coulthard, CEO

May 30, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump, politics