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Ngalia man Kado Muir opposed Warren Mundine’s pro nuclear campaign for Western Australia

Response to Warren Mundine, letter published in the Australian Financial Review, Kado Muir, April 2012, http://nuclearfree.wordpress.com/media/?preview=true&preview_id=11&previ…

(at left Kado Muir) It’s time to stop radioactive racism

Globally the nuclear industry is in decline and has been for a long time. The price of uranium was briefly inflated along with false dreams of a nuclear renaissance, in reality the industry is waning. The Fukushima disaster reminded both communities and financial institutions that nuclear power is far too risky for life on this planet.

In Western Australia we have a very aggressive uranium exploration program, sponsored by the State Government, yet deeply opposed by the people. We have a strong history of resistance against uranium mines and a proud history of stopping these mines. In the 1970′s my elders fought against uranium mining at Yeelirrie. In the 1980′s people from the Western Desert marched down St Georges Terrace in the thousands against uranium mining on their lands and we are proud to say we’ve never had a uranium mine in WA. We are going to keep it that way.

Warren Mundine wrote to the Financial Review promoting the nuclear industry. He wants uranium mining, he wants nuclear power and he wants the international community to dispose of its nuclear waste here, all on our lands. Mr Mundine does not speak for us here in Western Australia and has no right to talk about what should or should not happen on our country.

Some of the communities who are being barraged by these wanna be miners have generations of knowledge about uranium ‘poison’. We know better than most, the dangers of uranium. We also have generations worth of experience in dealing with mining companies , of witnessing their broken promises and the deep enduring failures of government to protect our country and people.

We don’t need someone from the East Coast, from Canberra or Canada to tell us what we should or shouldn’t do. Uranium stays in the ground. We have a saying, “Wanti* Uranium, leave it in the ground!” (*leave it)

The nuclear industry across Australia takes it’s toll on Aboriginal communities; from the nuclear weapons testing in Maralinga and Monte Bello island, from the trial mines in Wiluna, Yeelirrie and Manyingee in WA, to the abandoned mines in the NT & Queensland at Rum Jungle and Alligator River and Mary Kathleen, the existing mines at Ranger and Beverley and Roxby Downs in SA. The defeated proposed waste dump in South Australia now proposed for Muckaty Station in the NT. This industry preys on remote Aboriginal communities keeping everything out of sight and out of mind.

Across Australia there has never been a uranium mine that has not leaked radioactive mine waste into the environment, this industry has been tried and consistently failed.

The risk to our lands, to life itself far outweigh the measly rewards, the few jobs on offer, the State government royalties. It is not worth the long term damage to our country and to our water.

These mines will only last for 10 years or 20 years but as custodians we have thousands of years of waste. Long after this State government is a memory, long after the mining companies have gone broke we will be living with the radioactive legacy of their greedy short term ambitions. I and the people of West Australian Nuclear Free Alliance will not sell future generations short.

Kado Muir is the Chairperson of the West Australia Nuclear Free Alliance, he is a Ngalia man and a custodian for Yeelirrie – one of the uranium deposits under exploration by BHP Billiton.

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January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | politics, Western Australia | Leave a comment

Warren Mundine, new Liberal candidate, makes it clear that he is pro coal and nuclear, and anti environment

Warren Mundin’s article appeared today in the Daily Telegraph. It is behind a paywall. In the Herald Sun, extreme right wing writer Andrew Bolt obligingly supplied extracts from it, and rejoiced in Mundine’s anti-environment stand.
MUNDINE’S LIST OF GREEN SABOTAGE Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun January 24, 2019  Warren Mundine, the former Labor president who is now the Liberal candidate for Gilmore, lists just some of the damage done by Greens whose ignorance is even greater than the self-importance that drives them:

Green activists are fighting mining, industry and agriculture every step of the way, … often with funding from foreign organisations and wealthy elites with deep pockets…

ACF and GetUp! are trying to prevent North Queensland’s Carmichael mine — even though it’s passed all environmental hurdles… It will create thousands of jobs and business opportunities, especially for local Aboriginal people and Townsville…

Just look at the damage done by green activists and politicians to South Australia, now our poorest state. They have banned GM food crops, blocked development of a world-class nuclear waste facility, destroyed coal-fired power stations and restricted exploration for coal-seam gas. Nuclear power is also banned.

All of these policies are based on irrational green fears. Coal-fired power is not causing dangerous global warming, coal-seam gas extraction techniques are safe, nuclear waste dumps operate safely, and nuclear power stations safely producing low-emissions power around the world.

Sadly, though, we’re increasingly putting our future in the hands of wilfully ignorant scaremongers and mystics…..

 https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/mundines-list-of-green-sabotage/news-story/47a8e93ab8d0a813f78fe947dff1a56f,

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Warren Mundine picked by Scott Morrison to stand in marginal seat of Gilmore 

Guardian,  Paul Karp , 22 Jan 19   Indigenous leader and former Labor boss to be parachuted in as a Liberal in the NSW electorate held by retiring MP Ann Sudmalis

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine will be parachuted in to contest the marginal seat of Gilmore under a Scott Morrison-endorsed plan being considered by the New South Wales Liberal party executive.

On Tuesday the state executive voted to block the preselection of real-estate agent Grant Schultz, who had been picked by local members to contest the seat held by the retiring MP Ann Sudmalis.

Schultz reacted angrily to the decision and vowed to run in the seat as an independent……

The move would complete a lifelong political journey by Mundine from the Labor party, of which he was national president in 2006, to the conservative side of politics, via a stint as the chairman of Tony Abbott’s Indigenous Advisory Council. Mundine has only just applied for Liberal party membership. …..https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/22/warren-mundine-picked-by-scott-morrison-to-stand-in-marginal-nsw-seat

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics | Leave a comment

Busting the nuclear lobby’s spin about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs

Steve Dale, Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, 23 Jan 19

The nuclear lobby seems to have got a foothold with gullible miners. Ben Heard will be attending “Energy Mines and Money” in Brisbane (June). From the “About” section of the conference – “Energy Mines and Money Australia will showcase the east coast’s strategic mineral, coal and oil and gas opportunities, and match projects with global investment.”

He will be talking about “The role of small modular reactors”. From my observations, the role of small modular reactors is as fantasy bait for gullible politicians, miners, broadcasters – basically anyone silly enough to believe that these things are available, portable and small. A concept picture of a “small” reactor appears below (remember, the red arrow points to a tiny human figure for scale).https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, spinbuster, technology | Leave a comment

Australian mining companies dominate in human rights abuses in African countries

Dirty deeds: how to stop Australian miners abroad being linked to death and destruction, The Conversation, Julia Dehm
Lecturer, La Trobe UniversityJanuary 23, 2019 
 Australian companies dominate African mining. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade counts 175 ASX-listed companies operating in 35 African countries. Professional services company PwC reckons there are more than 200, and that “a golden age of Australia-Africa relations has begun”.
But Australian miners also arguably stand implicated in both human rights and environmental abuses in pursuit of Africa’s mineral wealth.

The Human Rights Law Centre has documented serious human rights abuses in the overseas operations of a number of prominent Australian companies. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has linked Australian mining operations to deaths, destruction and displacement across Africa. ……….
Despite the Australian government endorsing the UN declaration – along with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which also covers human rights obligations – there is no real legal obligation for Australian companies operating overseas to abide by such principles.
…….In June 2017 the Australian government established an advisory group for implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The group quickly recommended developing a national action plan, in line with international standards. But in October the government announced it was “not proceeding with a national action plan at this time”.

We can do better

Other countries are doing more.

France has introduced a “duty of vigilance” law requiring companies ensure their supply chains respect labour and other human rights.

In Switzerland there is a push for a constitutional amendment obliging Swiss companies to incorporate respect for human rights and the environment in all their activities.

Canada is soon to appoint an independent Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise to investigate allegations of human rights abuses linked to Canadian corporate activity overseas.

It’s increasingly recognised on a purely pragmatic level there are legal, reputational and financial risks if companies attempt to operate without community consent. Studies show the huge financial costs of conflicts with Indigenous communities, which can delay projects significantly.
Australia law makers, therefore, can do both local communities overseas and domestic investors at home a favour by putting in place adequate mechanisms to ensure Australian companies cause no harm overseas.  https://theconversation.com/dirty-deeds-how-to-stop-australian-miners-abroad-being-linked-to-death-and-destruction-109407

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, civil liberties, uranium | Leave a comment

UK: Rolls Royce has mothballed its plans for Small Modular Nuclear Reactors

Evening Standard 22nd Jan 2019 The British nuclear industry is a mess. Successive governments spent 13 years devising a nuclear policy, and after years of debate, six nuclear power stations were eventually selected. The idea was that private contractors, not government, should take the risk and build the plants. But the contractors were wary, and with the collapse of renewable energy prices they have become warier still.
Of the six sites, three have been abandoned, two — Sizewell and Bradwell in Suffolk and Essex — are still to be finalised. Only one, Hinkley Point C in Somerset is proceeding and it is controversial to say the least. Chances are that Hinkley will be abandoned
and we won’t build any more giant plants, but Government is still wedded to its policy so it may take a few years, or a general election.
The cost of renewable energy is, however, coming down fast and environmentalists say new electricity storage systems still to be developed will eventually bridge the gap for when the wind does not blow enough. We are not there yet though. But there is another option, though not one which environmentalists favour, and that is small modular reactors. Rolls-Royce has been making and
maintaining the power plants which drive the nuclear-powered submarines
carrying Britain’s nuclear deterrent since at least the Sixties.
 SMRs required Government to make available resources so the licensing and safety-assessment programme could
run smoothly and remove the risk of the whole thing being endlessly delayed. It required further long-term thinking in the form of a promise to buy at least seven of the plants so that Rolls-Royce could capture the economies of scale in manufacturing which are essential to bringing the costs down. It required Government to be willing to provide matched funding in the development phase of the project. And finally it required Government support to assist the company in fully developing its export markets.
Needless to say the Government has declined to do this and Rolls-Royce as a result is no longer speculatively prepared to pour in its own funds and has mothballed the project. So the chances are that we will not have small nuclear reactors either, other than in our submarines.  https://www.standard.co.uk/business/anthony-hilton-the-government-s-ignoring-a-mini-solution-to-nuclear-mess-a4045696.html

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | General News | Leave a comment

Death knell for British nuclear industry, as another new build plan collapses

Climate News Network 21st Jan 2019 , Once hailed as a key part of the energy future of the United Kingdom and several other countries, the high-tech atomic industry is now heading in the opposite direction, towards nuclear sunset. It took another body blow last week when plans to build four new reactors on two sites in the UK were abandoned as too costly by the Japanese company Hitachi. This was even though it had already sunk £2.14 billion (300 bn yen) in the scheme.

Following the decision in November by another Japanese giant, Toshiba, to abandon an equally ambitious scheme to build three reactors at Moorside in the north-west of England, the future of the industry in the UK looks bleak. The latest withdrawal means the end of the Japanese dream of keeping its nuclear industry alive by exporting its technology overseas. With thedomestic market killed by the Fukushima disaster in 2011, overseas sales were to have been its salvation.
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/nuclear-sunset-overtakes-fading-dreams/

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | General News | Leave a comment

Warren Mundine’s allegiance to the nuclear industry, rather than to the Aboriginal people

Warren Mundine’s nuclear allegiances, Jim Green, Online Opinion, 11 April 2012, more https://nuclear.foe.org.au/warren-mundines-nuclear-allegiances/?fbclid=IwAR32gwKze3jcbZV26e-sqsyRjE0lkFycLcyDj_lVWKVRxac1u4cttGzLeHM

Warren Mundine, a member and former National President of the ALP, and co-convener of the Australian Uranium Association’s Indigenous Dialogue Group, has been promoting the nuclear industry recently. Unfortunately he turns a blind eye to the industry’s crude racism, a problem that ought to be core business for the Indigenous Dialogue Group.

Mundine could have mentioned the legacy of uranium mining in the Wiluna region of WA; to pick one of many examples. Uranium exploration in the region in the 1980s left a legacy of pollution and contamination. Greatly elevated radiation levels have been recorded despite the area being ‘cleaned’ a decade ago. Even after the ‘clean up’, the site was left with rusting drums containing uranium ore. A sign reading “Danger − low level radiation ore exposed” was found lying face down in bushes.

In August 2000, coordinator of the Wiluna-based Marruwayura Aboriginal Corporation Steve Syred said that until 1993, 100−150 people were living three kilometres from the spot where high radiation levels were recorded. Syred told the Kalgoorlie Miner that the Aboriginal community had unsuccessfully resisted uranium exploration in the area in the early 1980s. Since then many people had lived in the area while the Ngangganawili Aboriginal Corporation was based near the contaminated site. Elders still hunted in the area.

Another example ignored by Mundine was in late March when the NSW government passed legislation that excluded uranium from provisions of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 thus stripping Aboriginal Land Councils of any say in uranium mining.

Yet another example ignored by Mundine was the 2011 amendments to the S.A. Roxby Downs Indenture Act 1982. This is the legislation that governs operations at the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine and retains exemptions from the S.A. Aboriginal Heritage Act. Traditional Owners were not even consulted in the amendments or exemptions. The S.A. government’s spokesperson in Parliament said: “BHP were satisfied with the current arrangements and insisted on the continuation of these arrangements, and the government did not consult further than that.”

That disgraceful performance illustrates a broader pattern. Aboriginal land rights and heritage protections are feeble at the best of times. But the legal rights and protections are repeatedly stripped away whenever they get in the way of nuclear or mining interests. The Olympic Dam mine is largely exempt from the S.A. Aboriginal Heritage Act and any uranium mines in NSW are to be exempt from provisions of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Likewise, sub-section 40(6) of the Commonwealth’s Aboriginal Land Rights Act exempts the Ranger uranium mine in the N.T. from the Act.

Mundine claims that Australia has “a legal framework to negotiate equitably with the traditional owners on whose land many uranium deposits are found”. That claim is disingenuous.

Native Title rights were extinguished with the stroke of a pen by the Howard government to seize land for a radioactive waste dump in South Australia. Aboriginal heritage laws and Aboriginal land rights are being trashed with the current push to dump in the Northern Territory. Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson’s National Radioactive Waste Management Act overrides the Aboriginal Heritage Act, sidesteps the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, and allows for the imposition of a dump on Aboriginal land even in the absence of any consultation with or consent from Traditional Owners.

David Ross, Director of the Central Land Council, noted in a March 14 media release: “This legislation is shameful, it subverts processes under the [Aboriginal] Land Rights Act and is clearly designed to reach the outcome of a dump being located on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, whether that’s the best place for it or not. This legislation preserves the Muckaty nomination without acknowledging the dissent and conflict amongst the broader traditional owner group about the process and the so-called agreement. The passage of this legislation will further inflame the tensions and divisions amongst families in Tennant Creek, and cause great stress to many people in that region.”

A small number of Traditional Owners support the N.T. dump proposal. However most are opposed and the Northern Territory Government supports that opposition, key trade unions including the Australia Council of Trade Unions, church groups, medical and health organisations, and environmental groups. If push comes to shove, there will be a blockade at the site to prevent construction of the dump.

A pro bono legal team is assisting Traditional Owners with their legal challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site. At a Federal Court hearing on March 27, a Commonwealth lawyer argued that the government’s legislation allows the nomination of a dump site to stand even if the evidence regarding traditional ownership is false.

These patterns are evident in other countries. North American Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke from the Anishinabe Nation told the Indigenous World Uranium Summit in 2006: “The greatest minds in the nuclear establishment have been searching for an answer to the radioactive waste problem for fifty years, and they’ve finally got one: haul it down a dirt road and dump it on an Indian reservation”.

Here in Australia the situation is scarcely any better than it was in the 1950s when the British were exploding nuclear bombs on Aboriginal land. Which brings us to another of Mundine’s blind spots. He could have mentioned the latest ‘clean up’ of the Maralinga nuclear test site, which was done on the cheap. Nuclear engineer and whistleblower Alan Parkinson said of the ‘clean-up’: “What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn’t be adopted on white-fellas land.”

Mundine’s claim to support Aboriginal empowerment is contradicted by his consistent failure to speak out when mining and nuclear interests and governments that support those interests disempower Aboriginal people.

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics | Leave a comment

How 100% renewables can create jobs and even save the gas industry — RenewEconomy

The gas industry of the future could manufacture and deliver renewable fuels, rather than mining and processing natural gas. The post How 100% renewables can create jobs and even save the gas industry appeared first on RenewEconomy.

via How 100% renewables can create jobs and even save the gas industry — RenewEconomy

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Australia tipped to add 70,000 home batteries in 2019, lead global demand — RenewEconomy

BNEF report says Australia on track to become biggest, “most attractive” home battery market in world in 2019, thanks to state government subsidies and huge rooftop solar uptake. The post Australia tipped to add 70,000 home batteries in 2019, lead global demand appeared first on RenewEconomy.

via Australia tipped to add 70,000 home batteries in 2019, lead global demand — RenewEconomy

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Japan looks to offshore wind as TEPCO inks MoU with Ørsted — RenewEconomy

Ørsted’s decision to further expand its developmental reach to Japan is unsurprising, the decision by TEPCO is of more interest. The post Japan looks to offshore wind as TEPCO inks MoU with Ørsted appeared first on RenewEconomy.

via Japan looks to offshore wind as TEPCO inks MoU with Ørsted — RenewEconomy

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

January 23 Energy News — geoharvey

Opinion: ¶ “How Free Markets Are Embracing Renewable Energy” • Instead of offering subsidies or incentives for renewable energy, Chile amended its laws to allow wind and solar technologies to compete in electricity capacity auctions. It let the market work, the cost of renewable power fell sharply, and fossil fuels could no longer compete. [Reaction] […]

via January 23 Energy News — geoharvey

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Windscale/Sellafield Pt. 10. Full text of Report on the Investigation of the Possible Increased Incidence of Cancer in West Cumbria 1986, COMARE. HMSO. — Nuclear Exhaust

https://www.academia.edu/38201320/Report_on_the_Investigation_of_the_Possible_Increased_Incidence_of_Cancer_in_West_Cumbria_a.pdf “Report on the Investigation of the Possible Increased Incidence of Cancer in West Cumbria : Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE), first report HMSO 1986.” This report is the first such report published as a result of British media reports in 1984. These media reports uncovered an apparent excess of […]

via Windscale/Sellafield Pt. 10. Full text of Report on the Investigation of the Possible Increased Incidence of Cancer in West Cumbria 1986, COMARE. HMSO. — Nuclear Exhaust

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Construction begins on 255MW Sunraysia solar farm in NSW — RenewEconomy

Works are underway on Maoneng’s 255MW Sunraysia Solar Farm near Balranald in New South Wales. The post Construction begins on 255MW Sunraysia solar farm in NSW appeared first on RenewEconomy.

via Construction begins on 255MW Sunraysia solar farm in NSW — RenewEconomy

January 24, 2019 Posted by Christina MacPherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

   

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This page has a very useful “SEARCH” function.  If you scroll way, way, down to the bottom of  the right side panel you can use  the “Search” slot. Type in a name or a place or topic on this slot,  and it’s easy to find a related post. The categories can be useful, too.

 

For international news go to https://nuclear-news.net/

   of the week

Nuclear power: Surviving on secrecy and misinformation

 

Australia — Nuclear Waste Cargo Ships ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN Bound for Australia

Clean Energy Australia 2018

What Effect Is The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident Having On Us?

EVENTS

12 February. Tuesday – Canberra– RALLY! StopAdani – Climate Action Now!

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PETITION

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