Antinuclear

Interview with Paul Culliver, Breakfast program of ABC North and West SA, 4 March 2020

Interviewer: Paul Culliver
Subject: Radioactive waste facility site, community consultation, progress with facility legislation, National Party Government to be built in Kimba. I just asked him: coming to this portfolio, and this process, what his mindset is. ………

PAUL CULLIVER: Obviously, Matt Canavan’s been the face of it for the Government for many years now and it’s now going to be you. Does anything change?

KEITH PITT: ……. really we just want to move forward with the legislation, get it through the system in terms of the House, the Senate, get royal assent and start to deliver for the people of Napandee.

PAUL CULLIVER: ……… Obviously, there’s people still with very strong views about this and very strong concerns about the process. I mean are you interested in hearing from those people still or are you just pushing forward?

KEITH PITT: We’re moving forward. We’ll always continue to consult with the community, but there’s been very broad community support; 61 per cent of the voters in Kimba support the facility; close on 60 per cent of local businesses; close on 60 per cent of submissions supported it; 100 per cent of the direct neighbours that share a boundary support the facility……..

PAUL CULLIVER: And what’s your feeling on the fact that the Barngarla people feel left out of that consultation process when people talk about broad community support? The Barngarla people say well we didn’t get a say in that community vote.

KEITH PITT: Well firstly, we’ve worked very closely with Barngarla people and there’s still an opportunity for us to continue to work closely with them as we’ve said we would both publicly and privately.

PAUL CULLIVER: The legislation’s gone into Parliament now; it’s been referred to a Senate inquiry. Could you just explain sort of what the process is there? What’s going to happen with that legislation?

KEITH PITT: Well firstly, the legislation’s been introduced to the Parliament. It will probably be debated in the House of Reps sometime this week,……. It will be debated in the Senate. Once it passes both the House and the Senate, after the committee process, it goes to what’s called royal assent with the Governor-General and becomes law and then we push on.

PAUL CULLIVER: And what exactly does this legislation do?

KEITH PITT: So effectively, it does make some changes around some pre-existing legislation to identify the site at Napandee as the site. There’s some bits around the community development package. ……….. but one of the points I really want to make is, you know, the low level waste which we stored here, around 80 per cent of that comes from nuclear medicine. ……

PAUL CULLIVER: One criticism from people vocal about this facility is that the intermediate waste is going to have to be moved on again somewhere anyway, so what’s the point of parking it in one place if you’re just going to have to find a new facility for it later?

KEITH PITT: So what we’ve said from the beginning is that this will be a storage facility for low level, and potentially intermediate waste. …….. we just have to be able to deal with the waste in a practical and sensible way.

PAUL CULLIVER: Will you be visiting Kimba?

KEITH PITT: It’s certainly on the list……I’ve spoken with Rowan Ramsey a number of times and I’ll take the first opportunity I can to get down in South Australia and talk to the local community…… https://www.facebook.com/groups/941313402573199/