South Australian Parliament rejected Kimba nuclear waste dump, but Morrison govt could still impose it

It sounds good that this Motion passed in SA Parliament Legislative Council – credit to Mark Parnell MLC & SA Greens.

This ‘No Nuclear Waste Dump in SA’ Motion passed with Greens, ALP and SA Best support (State Liberal gov opposed the Motion).

The Motion opposes a Nuclear Waste Dump at Kimba or anywhere else in South Australia and commits support to the integrity of the SA Nuclear Prohibition legislation”.

BUT –

Even though Mark Parnell’s motion in the South Australian Parliament was successful last week it may be an illusory outcome as it seems that the Commonwealth government will have the constitutional superiority to override state laws with regard to the nuclear waste facility at Kimba

This is because the Commonwealth will rely on the free trade provision under section 92 of the Constitution as to the transport interstate of the nuclear waste while its storage and disposal falls under the external affairs power of section 51(xxix) as the safe management and disposal of nuclear waste is regulated under international convention and treaty rights

Regrettably the High Court in recent years has based many of its decisions rejecting state legislation on a broad interpretation of the external affairs power which in some circumstances has lead to virtually nonsensical conclusions

For this reason it is still essential to prevent the government’s proposals being carried out by legislative action