Antinuclear

2020 in Australia – a successful year for resistance to nuclear pollution

DAVE SWEENEY | Nuclear Free Campaigner, Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.aua   15 Dec 20,

A year ago today the then federal resources/radioactive waste Minister Matt Canavan read the room in the Flinders Ranges and stated: “I will no longer consider this site an option for the facility”.     https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/canavan/media-releases/national-radioactive-waste-management-facility-wallerberdina

Viva!! This decision was a great tribute to Adnyamathanha, the FLAG crew and wider community resistance.

In the year since

• Canberra has turned to Kimba where they are facing a stiff fight and have failed in an attempt to rewrite the laws to remove people’s right to legally challenge the waste plan
• SA Labor, Unions SA and many more civil society groups and state and national voices have come on board against the waste plan
• The Australian Human Rights Commission acknowledged the three sisters – Vivianne and Regina McKenzie and Heather Stuart as Human Rights Heroes for their radwaste efforts
• ARPANSA – the federal nuclear regulator – has confirmed that Australia’s worst waste can securely remain at Lucas Heights ‘for decades”
• Matt Canavan is gone and we have a new Minister – the sixth in as many years – if radioactive waste had the same longevity as federal ministers it wouldn’t be an issue.
• Collectively we are stalling the deeply flawed federal plan and shifting the story from the search for a postcode to the need for a credible process

Congratulations to all those who successfully defended the Flinders – and strength to those now actively contesting the dodgy Kimba plan.

December 15, 2020 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, opposition to nuclear, politics