Jabiluka’s priceless heritage permanently protected.
“This day will go down in history.”
Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, representing the Mirarr Traditional Owners of Jabiluka, has today welcomed the decision of Northern Territory Mines Minister Mark Monaghan to refuse mining company Energy Resources of Australia’s application to extend the Jabiluka mining lease. This decision ensures that no mining will happen at Jabiluka, ending a decades-long fight by Mirarr and their supporters.
Mirarr Senior Traditional Owner Yvonne Margarula (pictured above) said:
“We have always said no to this mine, government and mining companies told us they would mine it but we stayed strong and said no. Today I feel very happy that Jabiluka will be safe forever. Protecting country is very important for my family and for me”
The Special Reservation (under the NT Mines Act) will protect Jabiluka from the threat of any mining and takes effect from August 11th when the current lease expires. The next steps for Government will be to seek inclusion in the World Heritage estate and to work with Mirarr to establish a new set of arrangements to incorporate the area into Kakadu National Park.
Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation CEO Thalia van den Boogaard said:
“This news has been a long time coming. It’s a hugely significant day for the Mirarr and for all Australians. Jabiluka will never be mined and the internationally significant natural and cultural value of the site is finally being recognised and will now be protected. The Mirarr and their supporters have been steadfast in their opposition to this mining project for over four decades. Now the job starts of caring for Jabiluka as the heritage of all Australians.
“Mirarr are very concerned that ERA has been in serious financial decline for the past 18 months. Focus now needs to be put on the rehabilitation of the nearby former Ranger uranium mine. It is up to the mining company and the Commonwealth Government to ensure that site is fully rehabilitated so it can be safely returned to the Mirarr and included in the national park.”
Mirarr Traditional Owner Corben Mudjandi welcomed the news:
“This day will go down in history as the day the Mirarr finally stopped Jabiluka. It is great day for the Mirarr people, for Kakadu, the Northern Territory and for Australia. This proves that people standing strong for Country can win. We look forward to welcoming all Australians to share our cultural heritage for decades to come.”
“I’m not interested in the fanatics:” Dutton responds to science academy’s report on nuclear SMRs
Giles Parkinson, Jul 25, 2024, https://reneweconomy.com.au/im-not-interested-in-the-fanatics-dutton-responds-to-science-academys-report-on-nuclear-smrs/
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has dismissed a report on nuclear small modular reactors by the highly respected Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, saying the Coalition has consulted its own experts and it is not interested in the views of “fanatics.”
ATSE on Wednesday described SMRs as a “chimera”, and said they were unlikely to be able to be built in Australia before the mid to late 2040s, more than a decade before the Coalition’s timeline of 2035.
The report by ATSE is in line with other assessments by the CSIRO, the Australian Energy Regulator, the Australian Energy Market Operator, former chief scientist and virtually everyone in the energy industry.
But Dutton dismissed it out of hand.
“What this report shows is that the lights are going to go out, and that wind, in particular, is not reliable,” he told journalists in the Hunter Valley, not far from one of the sites identified by the Coalition to host a nuclear power plant, according to a transcript posted on his website.
Actually, the ATSE report says nothing of the sort. It doesn’t address grid reliability problems, nor does it look at SMR costs or waste issues.
It observes that the technology does not yet exist in OECD countries, will not likely be commercially available for another 20 years, and concludes that any move to go earlier – as the Coalition wants to do – would be both costly and risky.
Dutton, however, is undeterred by such expert arguments, and by fact-checkers.
“Well, we’ve done analysis and we’ve spoken to experts. Our analysis is that we can have nuclear into the system 2035 to 2037 in the first two sites, and then we continue to roll it out from there,” he said.
Asked again about the ATSE report, and its view that 2035 is simply not doable, Dutton said: “I’m not interested in the fanatics from both sides of the argument.”
He then went on to repeat the same misinformation that he trots out at every opportunity: That Australia is the only G20 country not doing nuclear (not true), that the market operator has warned of blackouts and brownouts (not true), and that it plans 28,000 kms of new transmission (not part of its central scenario, only in the export superpower scenario and by 2050).
“You can’t have – as Barnaby (Joyce) rightly pointed out today, and I thought it was a great way to put it – you can’t run a full-time economy on part-time power,” he said.
Apart, of course, from South Australia, which is already running at 70 per cent wind and solar, has a bipartisan target of 100 per cent net renewables by 2027, and is luring new industry attracted to the state by low cost and low emissions power.
See also: Peter Dutton and crew get close to planned nuclear power plant site and repeat same nonsense.
And: Forget EVs, the Coalition has a plan for nuclear fuelled hydrogen cars
Gina Rinehart’s threat to the proud independence of Australia’s Fairfax newspapers
So why is Gina Rinehart buying? She has no interest as a shareholder in making money. She wants to buy influence.
In 1979, Gina’s father, Lang Hancock argued: “We can change the situation so as to limit the power of government,”
before concluding: “it could be broken by obtaining control of the media and then educating the public”.
The Conversation, By Andrew Jaspan, Editor, 11 Feb 12, News of Gina Rinehart’s tilt at Fairfax Media is a circuit breaker in the never-ending story of the media company’s decline. As a former editor of The Age, one of Fairfax’s prized mastheads, I have spent the day wondering where this might end. Whichever way, it looks bad for quality, independent journalism. This is a defining moment for the kind of Australia we want….
Fairfax’s papers have an awful lot of clout. The combined audience for The Age in print and online is about 1 million readers per day, and the SMH just above. For those who follow these things, that’s higher than for any Channel 7, 9, 10 or ABC news bulletins. And more importantly, the audience for the Fairfax papers, including The Australian Financial Review, is the influential and affluent “AB” market. For these people, what the Fairfax papers report, matters.
Unlike the tabloids read by the bulk of Australians. The Age, SMH and The Fin, along with The Australian, set Australia’s news agenda and are slavishly followed by the radio talk-back and TV news shows.
So why is Gina Rinehart buying? She has no interest as a shareholder in making money. She wants to buy influence. In 2007 she placed full
page ads in The Age and SMH against then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s
proposed mining tax. That campaign ended with the removal of Rudd and
the collapse of the tax. Now instead of buying pages, she wants to buy
the papers.
Such motivation is deep in the Rinehart family genes. In a 1979
polemic called Wake up Australia, Gina’s father, Lang Hancock argued:
“We can change the situation so as to limit the power of government,”
before concluding: “it could be broken by obtaining control of the
media and then educating the public”.
And on the miners’ right to mine anywhere, he wrote: “Nothing should
be sacred from mining whether it’s your ground, my ground, the
blackfellow’s ground or anybody else’s. So the question of Aboriginal
land rights and things of this nature shouldn’t exist.”
The Murdoch press in Australia is already favourably disposed to the
miners and the Minerals Council view of the world. Fairfax provides an
alternative view. And one that Gina no doubt wants neutered, silenced
or turned around. Perhaps by Gina’s favourite columnist, Andrew Bolt?
Whether Australia retains an independent and semi-pluralist media will
become clear within the near future. In the meantime, The Conversation
will keep a close eye on this matter of national importance.
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2012/02/07/latest-wrap-of-health-and-medical-reading-from-the-conversation/
Time for Dutton to produce the nuclear evidence
Kevin Bailey, -Yet another group – this time the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering – has, based on existing evidence, questioned the Coalition’s nuclear plans (″Experts query Dutton’s nuclear plan″, 24/7). Their view adds to those of the Australian Energy Market Operator, several business groups and the National Farmers Federation who have recently expressed similar opinions. Notwithstanding this, Dutton continues to claim, without explicitly naming those whom he describes as ″some of Australia’s cleverest minds″, that he knows best. It’s about time he produced not only the names of the people who have those minds but also the evidence on which his claims are based. And while he’s at it, perhaps he can also provide the detailed cost-benefit analysis.
Fiona Colin, – The fading safer future for our children. Yet another nail in Peter Dutton’s nuclear coffin comes from the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering. The academy’s president says ″they are not a viable part of that [decarbonisation] solution″ because they are not commercially available anywhere and therefore would not get us to where we need to be. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is clear: this is the critical decade if we are to have any hope of limiting warming to safe levels, i.e. 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Current policies have the planet on track to warming of around 3 degrees. The CSIRO calculated that in 2023 ″Australia emitted 465.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent″, 0.8 per cent more than in 2022. The Coalition seeks to delay action to bring down emissions. Labor’s new gas and coal will not bring down emissions. Carbon capture and storage and offsets will not bring down emissions. The opposition continues to deride and stymie the rollout of renewables. Fossil fuel interests continue to lobby and pressure governments to enable expansion. Meanwhile, consumers are denied the cheapest form of electricity in history, and a safer future for their children.
The action must be now Graeme Lechte, The article (24/7) highlights the fact that any plans for a nuclear energy program will take decades rather than years to establish. This, at a time when the world just experienced its hottest day on record. We need immediate action on lowering emissions not a plan that wouldn’t be up and running until the 2040s.Other questions also need to be asked of the proponents of nuclear. How much will the establishment of a nuclear industry cost? Exactly how long will it take to establish? What will be the percentage of energy needs supplied by the nuclear industry? Exactly where will the reactors be situated and what effect will they have on our precious water resources? Finally, and most importantly, how and where will the resultant radioactive waste be stored. Until supporters of nuclear come up with the answers to these questions support for a nuclear industry will gain no traction.
An honest discussion is needed, Jennifer Gerrand,
Peter Dutton, when recently spruiking the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan in the small town of Murchison, a Queensland electorate the Coalition has earmarked for a small modular reactor (SMR), says he wants an honest discussion about nuclear power. How can there be an honest discussion when he hasn’t provided costs of their plans for such. He doesn’t name ″the smartest minds in Australia″ who, he claims, attest to nuclear power being cheaper than renewable wind or solar energy. Strong, consistent, evidence-based disagreement to such plans by energy experts has continued from the time that policy was first announced.Nor does Dutton acknowledge, while mentioning the name Bill Gates, that Gates recently advised 7.30 journalist Sarah Ferguson that, due to present concerns about aspects of SMRs, Australia should wait several years before making decisions about their appropriateness for our continent’s needs.Jennifer Gerrand, Carlton North
‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ protesters arrested on Capitol Hill
- The demonstrators are from Jewish Voice for Peace
- Demonstrators can be seen wearing shirts saying ‘Stop Arming Israel’
- Biden and Netanyahu scheduled to meet later this week
Evan Lambert, Urja Sinha, JUL 23, 2024, https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/israel-palestine/pro-palestinian-protesters-capitol-arrests/
(NewsNation) — Approximately 200 protesters have been arrested after they gathered in the Cannon Rotunda to protest the Israeli government, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
Organizers of the demonstration say they are from Jewish Voice for Peace, an American anti-Zionist Jewish advocacy organization that is “critical of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories,” according to its website.
Video from the protest shows dozens wearing red shirts sitting in circles in the Cannon House Office Building’s rotunda. The demonstrators wore shirts reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “Not in Our Name.”
The protest comes as President Joe Biden is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, a U.S. official confirmed to NewsNation. Netanyahu will also address Congress during his U.S. visit.
Capitol Police have cleared out all the demonstrators from the rotunda, writing on X that, “We told the people, who legally entered, to stop or they would be arrested. They did not stop, so we are arresting them.”
Antinuclear 