Climate change – iconic Macquarie Marshes on fire
Key points:
- Since Saturday, around 3,000 hectares of Ramsar-protected national park has burnt out
- An ecologist fears the fire may destroy the unique ecosystem of Macquarie Marshes — home to numerous waterbirds
- Fires have swept through before, but the soil is dryer than usual with a flood over the next year needed for reed roots to survive
The Ramsar-protected wetland regularly supports more than 20,000 waterbirds, and more than 500,000 birds when there are large floods.
But the blaze, which started on Saturday, has so far burnt 3,000 hectares of national park and early estimates suggest 90 per cent of the wetland’s main reed bed has been razed.
Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales Professor Richard Kingsford feared the fire could destroy the unique ecosystem.
“Reeds are very deep-rooted plants, but they can only come back if there’s water in the system,” Professor Kingsford said…….
Drought, fire threaten endangered species
Professor Kingsford has been studying waterbirds in the Macquarie Marshes for almost 30 years.
Right now it was the driest he had ever seen it.
“It’s almost impossible to find any water in the northern part of the Macquarie Marshes,” he said.
“Water birds there are extremely low in numbers and when we were out there in September there were a lot of dead and dying animals around……
Massive flood needed
Floodplain landholder Dugald Bucknell runs his grazing operation alongside the national park.
He described the latest wildfire as the “devastating” consequence of drought and failed water policy.
In August, the Berejiklian Government intervened to divert water from the Macquarie River at Warren to drought-hit towns such as Cobar and Nyngan.
“There’s no water in Burrendong Dam upstream of the marshes, there’s virtually no water in stock and domestic dams downstream of it, and somehow we’re meant to wish for a miracle to re-wet our marshlands,” Mr Bucknell said.
He said the wetlands were not getting the water they needed to survive and feared more fires would follow.
“It’s becoming unsustainable. Its frightening,” Mr Bucknell said.
“We’re killing off our kids’ and grandkids’ future to take a bit more water elsewhere in the system.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-28/macquarie-marshes-on-fire-90pc-reed-bed-razed/11645914
Australian Federal Police put their case at Federal Court hearing about their raid on ABC
No role’ for implied freedom of political communication in ABC raid decision: AFP, The Age Michaela Whitbourn, October 29, 2019 The ABC had “no basis” for claiming the implied freedom of political communication acted as a handbrake on a court’s power to issue a warrant to the Australian Federal Police to raid its Sydney headquarters, lawyers for the police have told the Federal Court.
The national broadcaster is challenging the legal validity of the search warrant authorising the June 5 raid on its offices in Ultimo and is seeking the return of documents seized at the time.
After a series of preliminary legal fights earlier this year, the full hearing in the Federal Court commenced on Monday and continued on Tuesday with submissions from the federal police.
The ABC is challenging the warrant on four bases, including the decision to grant the search warrant, made by a Local Court registrar, fell foul of the implied freedom of political communication in the Commonwealth Constitution…….
In documents filed in court, the ABC argues the implied freedom is relevant and “investigative journalism in the public interest that relies on information provided to journalists by confidential sources … is fundamental to the maintenance of the Australian system of representative democracy” which is provided for in the Australian Constitution. ……
David William McBride, a former military lawyer, has previously admitted leaking material to the ABC that formed the basis of its reports and has been charged with a range of criminal offences.
Some good news for a change: Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to fall
In a policy brief released today, we predict that Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions will peak during 2019-20 at the equivalent of about 540 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
After a brief plateau, we expect they will decline by 3-4% over 2020-22, and perhaps much more in the following years – if backed by government policy.
Australia: a renewables superstar
Deployment of solar and wind energy is the cheapest and quickest way to make deep emissions cuts because of its low and falling cost. Higher deployment rates would yield deeper emissions cuts, but this requires supportive government policy.
Australia: a renewables superstar
Deployment of solar and wind energy is the cheapest and quickest way to make deep emissions cuts because of its low and falling cost. Higher deployment rates would yield deeper emissions cuts, but this requires supportive government policy.
The emissions road ahead
Continued rapid deployment of solar and wind requires that governments enable construction of adequate electricity transmission and storage.
In the longer term, solar and wind can cut national emissions by two-thirds. Beyond the electricity sector, this involves electrifying motor vehicles, residential heating and cooling and industrial heating. National emissions could be cut by another 10% by stopping exports of fossil fuels, which creates fugitive emissions.
Voting begins in Kimba as nuclear waste issues divide the community
Whatever the result, the communities on South Australia’s Eyre peninsula are split over the issue – and will be for some time, Guardian, Calla Wahlquist 27 Oct 19, After four years of speculation and three years of consultation, the small towns of Kimba and Hawker in South Australia have begun the final stage of a process that has divided neighbours and placed these otherwise forgotten communities on the national map.On 7 November, the Kimba district council will announce the result of a month-long vote on whether its residents support the construction of a nuclear waste facility at one of two proposed sites. On 11 November a similar vote will open for the Flinders Ranges council over a third proposed site at Wallerberdina.
The search for a suitable site has taken more than 30 years. If one or both of the communities vote yes, the resources minister, senator Matt Canavan, could name the final site by the end of the year.
Kimba and Hawker are only 200km apart, falling on either side of Port Augusta at the top of the Eyre peninsula. They are both in the federal electorate of Grey. The former federal member, Barry Wakelin, has drawn criticism from his ex-Liberal party colleagues for publicly criticising the proposal, citing as his chief concern the impact of community division.
“Once you divide the community, where there are really clear views one way or the other, it’s quite difficult to settle that down again,” he says.
What is proposed?
The proposed Wallerberdina site is on rangelands (used for grazing), occupying a 100 hectare slice of the 23,580ha station owned by former Liberal senator Grant Chapman, who sat on nuclear waste committees in his 28 years in parliament.
Both of the proposed sites at Kimba are on farming country, prompting a grassroots campaign against the use of agricultural land to dump nuclear waste.
All three sites were volunteered by the property owners, as part of a process that saw 28 sites nominated across Australia. The government says it is a coincidence that the three finalists are in one narrow patch of SA.
The proposed facility would provide for the disposal of low-level nuclear waste and the temporary storage — for how long it’s not clear — of intermediate-level nuclear waste.
“The facility will be able to hold Australia’s current and future intermediate-level waste until [the] establishment of a permanent facility for this material,” the taskforce says in a statement to Guardian Australia. “The permanent facility will be in a different location and of a different type.”
It says there’s about 1,771 cubic metres of intermediate-level waste and 4,975 cubic metres of low-level waste at 100 sites across Australia, including the Lucas Heights reactor, and those volumes are expected to rise incrementally over time.
There are 45 jobs promised as part of the facility and the host community will also receive $31m in federal funding, including $20m for community projects and $3m designated for Indigenous groups.
Both the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation, covering Kimba, and the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association (Atla), covering Hawker and Wallerberdina, oppose the facility.
Regina McKenzie, an Adnyamathanha traditional owner who lives on a station adjoining Wallerberdina, says federal contractors damaged a cultural women’s site while conducting their cultural heritage survey. Atla was working with the station owner to catalogue the archeological and intangible heritage before the site was volunteered for a nuclear facility, but say they have since been left out.
“The government has been talking at us, they have not been talking with us,” she says.
The Barngarla lost a federal court challenge arguing that all registered native title holders should be eligible to vote in the community ballot, whether they are local residents or not, and are appealing that decision to the full court. An attempted injunction to stop the community ballot going ahead until that appeal was heard was unsuccessful. ………
Wakelin says the decision ought to have been made without money on the table. Affected communities have already received $5.76m in funding for community projects and a further $4m was announced this month.
He says politicians are “petrified” of discussing nuclear waste, and he believes the federal government will try to get the issue resolved quickly – even if both communities vote no.
“As the minister tells us now: ‘Yeah, you can vote, but I’ll still make the decision’,” he says.
Greg Bannon, a spokesman for the Flinders Local Action Group, has been opposed to the project since Wallerberdina was named as one of six shortlisted sites in November 2015 (the site was named Barndioota at the time). He knows the area well from working as a jackeroo. It’s typically very dry but has been known to flood, and abuts the Flinders Ranges, the most seismically active area of SA.
“I thought: this cannot be the right place, it must be a mistake,” Bannon said…….https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/27/the-most-divisive-thing-two-small-towns-brace-for-a-vote-on-nuclear-waste
MP Sonja Terpstra and Victoria’s Labor government stand by existing bans on nuclear activities
Sonja Terpstra, State Labor Member for Eastern Metropolitan Region “….The Victorian Government and I do not support the state parliamentary inquiry into the use of nuclear energy. We stand by our existing ban on nuclear power and are committed to retaining the Victorian Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act 1963.
It makes no sense to construct nuclear power stations in Australia. They present significant community, environmental and health risks, not to mention the ongoing and yet unsolved problem of the disposal of nuclear waste. Instead through the Victorian Labor Government’s ambitious Victorian Renewable Energy Target, we are giving the renewable energy sector the confidence needed to invest in the clean energy projects and jobs that are crucial to our future….”
New political party Reform WA wants nuclear power as an option for Western Australia
New political party Reform WA wants nuclear power as an option for Western Australia
Just 413 people can make the decision on storage of Australia’s nuclear waste
Tim Bickmore shared a post.No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 27 Oct 19,
Only 413 people (50%+1 of 825) could determine the location of Australia’s entire radioactive waste stockpile for the duration of an unknown potential number of centuries.
That’s democracy for ya…..
Have you posted your ballot paper back yet? As of this morning the Australian Electoral Commission advised us that they have received 569 ballot papers (69.13%). Please be aware that whilst the closing date for the ballot is Thursday the 7th November 2019 at 10am, adequate time needs to be allowed to ensure your ballot reaches Adelaide and is included in the count by the above date and time. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
240 conservation scientists call on Australian government to strengthen environmental protection laws
Letter by 240 leading scientists calls on Scott Morrison to stem extinction crisis, More than 240 conservation scientists sign open letter warning PM that 17 Australian native species face extinction in next 20 years. Guardian, Adam Morton Environment editor @adamlmorton, Mon 28 Oct 2019 More than 240 conservation scientists have called on Scott Morrison to drop his opposition to stronger environment laws and seize a “once-in-a-decade opportunity” to fix a system that is failing to stem a worsening extinction crisis.
With the federal government due to this week announce a 10-yearly legislated review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, the scientists have signed an open letter to the prime minister urging him to increase spending and back laws to help protect the natural world from further destruction.
The letter says three native species have become extinct in the past decade and another 17 could follow in the next 20 years. More than 1,800 Australian plants and animals are formally listed as threatened with extinction, but the scientists say this is an underestimate.
“Our current laws are failing because they are too weak, have inadequate review and approval processes, and are not overseen by an effective compliance regime,” the scientists say.
“Since they were established (in 1999), 7.7m hectares of threatened species habitat has been destroyed. That’s an area larger than Tasmania. Meanwhile, the number of extinctions continue to climb, while new threats emerge and spread unchecked.”
Environmental law was a point of difference at this year’s election, with Morrison pledging to limit “green tape” that he said cost jobs while Labor promised a new environment act and a federal environment protection authority.
Lesley Hughes, a distinguished professor of biology at Macquarie University, member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a signatory to the letter, said environmental protections had been consistently wound back over the past decade, most often by conservative governments.
She said it was having a significant impact, pointing to the 2016 state-of-the-environment report that found Australia was facing multiple environment changes and lacked a national policy that established a clear vision for the protection and sustainable management of the country’s natural heritage.
She also cited a WWF assessment that ranked eastern Australia as one of the world’s top 11 deforestation hotspots. Australia was the only developed country on the list.
“It’s a very grim picture,” Hughes said. “This letter is a pre-emptive strike to say this is an opportunity to do it better, this is not an opportunity to weaken and dilute the existing weak laws.”
Morrison’s pledge not to increase environmental laws came as a United Nations global assessment found biodiversity was declining at an unprecedented rate, with one million species across the globe at risk of extinction and human populations in jeopardy if the trajectory was not reversed.
The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the review of the EPBC Act was an independent process that would encourage submissions from a wide variety of perspectives……. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/28/toughen-environmental-laws-to-stem-extinction-crisis-scientists-tell-morrison
85 fires burning across New South Wales
Warnings issued as dozens of bushfires burn across New South Wales, Almost 1200 firefighters are tackling large bushfires on the NSW mid-north coast among scores of blazes around the state. SBS, 27 Oct 19,Warning levels for two bushfires on the NSW mid-north coast have been increased to watch and act, with close to 1200 firefighters battling 85 blazes around the state.
An out-of-control blaze in the Darawank area, north of Forster-Tuncurry, has burnt more than 2300 hectares, the NSW Rural Fire Service said.
Fire activity has increased under the influence of erratic winds, it said in a statement on Sunday afternoon. The fire has crossed The Lakes Way and is burning towards Failford, where smoke and ashes may be encountered.
“There are a number of small active areas throughout the fireground,” NSW RFS said.
“Firefighters and aircraft continue work to slow the spread of the fire.”
The blaze is producing large amounts of smoke……..
At midday some 85 fires were burning across the state with 45 not contained.
Nearly 1200 firefighters are working to contain the fires, NSW RFS said.
Embers from the Tuncurry blaze travelled kilometres ahead of the fire front on Saturday, creating spot fires in suburban backyards and the headland at Forster Main Beach……https://www.sbs.com.au/news/warnings-issued-as-dozens-of-bushfires-burn-across-nsw
A new court order is being abused in order to harass a journalist
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! Media’s dwindling role in Democracy Panel
Toxic “Safety” orders the latest tool to shut down free speech https://www.michaelwest.com.au/toxic-safety-orders-the-latest-tool-to-shut-down-free-speech/, by Michael West — 25 October 2019 It’s #YourRightToKnow. There are many ways to silence the media: persecution of whistleblowers, defamation threats, contempt of court claims, lobbying of media bosses by powerful interests, injurious falsehood claims, the government’s draconian secrecy laws and police raids on journalists. Michael West reports on the latest abuse against free speech.
Today we can unveil yet another threat to freedom of speech: the Personal Safety Intervention Order (PSIO), a court order which is intended to help victims of domestic violence but instead is being abused as a tool to harass journalists, namely Sandi Keane, Editor of this publication.
It’s #YourRightToKnow. There are many ways to silence the media: persecution of whistleblowers, defamation threats, contempt of court claims, lobbying of media bosses by powerful interests, injurious falsehood claims, the government’s draconian secrecy laws and police raids on journalists. Michael West reports on the latest abuse against free speech.
Today we can unveil yet another threat to freedom of speech: the Personal Safety Intervention Order (PSIO), a court order which is intended to help victims of domestic violence but instead is being abused as a tool to harass journalists, namely Sandi Keane, Editor of this publication.
There have been some reports about the abuse of Personal Safety Intervention Orders in Victoria by those seeking malicious revenge. The editor of this journal, Sandi Keane, is believed to be the first journalist to be silenced in this way. She’s attended court seven times after receiving two Orders and has been threatened with a third. “An Intervention Order is now a sure fire way to shut down a story,” says Keane. “Getting an Intervention Order in Victoria is instant and cost-free (no lawyer required).”
The two essential criteria are for applicants to claim they have been threatened and are suffering mental stress as result.
An Interim Order will be issued immediately against anyone in Australia.
Sandi Keane says the applicants lied about the threats but no evidence was needed until the Final Contested Hearing some 12-18 months later.
The effect on public interest reporting therefore is chilling as most news is time-critical, so by the time the story might eventually be published, its news value might have evaporated.
There are no consequences for abusing the legal system and costs cannot be claimed by the Respondent in the proceedings.
The Applicant can also manipulate the date of the final hearing as a magistrate will only set a date for the Final Hearing if both sides have had a chance to get a lawyer; are ready for the hearing; or agree to the date.
Furthermore, court reporters cannot report on an Intervention Order unless they withhold the name of the court and names of the relevant parties.
So, not only does an Intervention Order trump an Injunction in the High Court with all its attendant costs and adverse publicity, it also ticks the Suppression Order box.
Yet the sting in the tail is that, from the date of the Interim Order, all references to the “protected person” must be deleted from any media site including social media (Condition 10).
Journalists can forget about getting another colleague to publish the story as this is prohibited under Condition 8.
Breaching the order risks a criminal conviction or prison sentence.
Journalists union, the Media Arts and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA), has met with the Victorian Attorney General with the hope of amending the Personal Safety Intervention Order Act to protect freedom of the press. In a letter to the Chief Magistrate, the MEAA wrote:
“This is a dangerous assault on press freedom, has a chilling effect on legitimate journalism in the public interest and undermines the public’s right to know.”
Editor’s Note:
Sandi Keane’s investigation was into the fraudsters operating in the pedigree dog industry. She was successful in contesting one of these orders. The unsuccessful Applicant in this case had served a jail sentence for fraud and was also found guilty of arson. The other applicant also has a conviction for fraud. These two people have taken out five PSIOs of which we know. The others were granted against people who had taken legal action against them, made an official complaint or given evidence against them.
The rise of PSIOs, and their abuse, coincides with the rise in other forms of suppression of free speech in Australia, by all three branches of government: the judiciary, the executive and the legislature.
It’s time to enshrine free speech in the constitution such as is the case in the US. You can take action to stand up for your right to know. Check out MEAA’s Take Action site here.
Attorney General Christian Porter backs laws that restrict journalists’ reporting
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Material from raid on journalist’s home ‘may be used to prosecute’, The Age, By Dana McCauley October 25, 2019 — Attorney-General Christian Porter has launched an extraordinary intervention in a High Court case over raids by Australian Federal Police (AFP) on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst’s home, asking the court to block a move to destroy material that may be used for future prosecution.
Mr Porter, who has sought to reassure media companies fighting for press freedom that he is “seriously disinclined” to approve prosecutions over public interest journalism, said in a joint submission to the court that the AFP was still weighing up whether to refer the matter to prosecutors. “If charges are laid, the data seized from Ms Smethurst’s phone may well be important. In those circumstances, the court should not order that the data be destroyed,” Mr Porter’s joint submission with the Australian Federal Police said. “It should leave it to the trial judge in any future criminal prosecution to determine whether that material will be admitted.” Australian media outlets – including Nine, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – have united with a ‘Right to Know’ campaign to warn against growing censorship, calling for reforms to shield whistleblowers and journalists from prosecution. Mr Porter has asked the court to uphold the validity of the AFP raid warrant and secrecy laws that restrict journalists’ reporting, which News Corp and Ms Smethurst are challenging. AFP officers raided Ms Smethurst’s home in June over a story published in the Sunday Telegraph a year earlier, in which she reported on a government plan to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australian citizens for the first time. News Corp and Ms Smethurst argue the raid breached the implied freedom of political communication in Australia’s Constitution because the prohibition on publishing classified information was not limited to “inherently harmful” disclosures and gave the government “unconstrained discretion” to protect information, even if it was “merely embarrassing”…….. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security inquiry into press freedom will report at the end of November……… On Friday, the information watchdog launched an investigation into the Home Affairs department’s compliance with freedom of information laws after it emerged the department was failing to release documents within the legal deadline in one out of four cases. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/material-from-raid-on-journalist-s-home-may-be-used-to-prosecute-20191025-p534cr.html |
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Farmers, traditional owners and ratepayers unite in anti-nuclear rally,
The rally began in Gladstone Square, before stopping outside Stuart MP Dan van Holst Pellekaan’s office to deliver a letter from Green’s senator Sarah Hansen Young.
Kimba resident Terry Schmucker owns a farm in Cootra, close to the proposed Napandee site on the Eyre Peninsula.
“The decision to put radioactive waste on farmland is wrong,” Mr Schmucker said.
“Farmland is valuable. If you take out as little as 160 hectares, that’s still farmland that’s gone and that’s along with the mining that’s happening, that’s along with urban sprawl, that’s a long with everything … We need to protect our farmland.”
Grains and oilseeds are Australia’s largest category of food exports, representing 24 per cent of total agricultural exports.
Strict industry guidelines make Australian growers highly competitive internationally, while also supplying high-quality products for domestic consumption……..
“We are also pretty isolated on grain marketing and we grow really good produce but the buyers don’t want to pay us a good price, so they will use any excuse to discount us. All they have got to say is that there’s radioactive waste right next to us, here’s $50 a tonne less.
“So whether it actually affects our produce is not actually the important bit, it’s all in the head for people who wind us down and bargain with us on price.”
Adnyamathanha woman Vivienne McKenzie also attended the rally, speaking on behalf of traditional owners in the Flinders Ranges.
Wallerberdina station near Barndioota in the Flinders Ranges is one of the three remaining potential sites for the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility.
The Seven Sisters songline, one of the most significant creation tracks throughout Australia, runs nearby this site.
Songlines explain the laws desert people live by, the origins of country and are a crucial element of Aboriginal culture.
“It’s a very, very important site for the women The Seven Sisters is because that is the first storyline up there in the Flinders Ranges that’s been recorded anywhere and it was tabled in the state parliament of South Australia,” Ms McKenzie said.
“Its like if you have a book and someone rips a page out, it takes away from the story that you’re given.
“It’s desecration, and we are trying to preserve those songlines for generations to come. “The Adnyamathanha people aren’t recognised in their own Country, they can’t even get a vote.” https://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/6456928/farmers-traditional-owners-and-ratepayers-unite-in-anti-nuclear-rally/
South Australian Labor comes out swinging against nuclear waste dump selection process
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Deputy Opposition leader slams federal government’s nuclear waste site selection process, Transcontinental, Amy Green 25 Oct 19,
“We are utterly opposed to the process,” says Deputy Leader of the Opposition Susan Close regarding the current federal approach to a national radioactive waste facility in regional South Australia. “We understand there is a need to do something with Australia’s domestic waste but they have gone about it so badly that they have put the community off. “They haven’t done the due consideration that they ought to be doing of what the possibilities physically are.” At a recent state conference, the South Australian Labor Party adopted a policy contesting the federal government’s site nomination and selection process. They have called for full transparency, broad public input and best practice technical and consultative standards.
Ms Close condemned the federal government’s current approach to building a potential facility at sites in Kimba and Hawker. “It is a federal issue but we just have a view about it that they have gone about it in an appalling way,” Ms Close said. “They get to make the decision, we don’t have have any capacity even if we were in government to do anything, but what they have done is asked landholder if anyone wants to have this and left the Aboriginal community out. “For some reason, the only three sites they are looking at are in South Australia which is very strange.” Federal Minister for Resources Matt Canavan said thethree potential sites in South Australia were all voluntarily nominated and the facility will only be built where a community broadly supports it…….. Premier Steven Marshall has maintained a stance that radioactive waste management is a federal issue and the state government has remained quiet during the drawn out process. With community ballots now underway in the District Council of Kimba, and one scheduled later this year for the Flinders Ranges Council, Ms Close has accused the Marshall government of being “asleep at the wheel”……. “This is just part of a pattern that the Marshall Liberal government doesn’t seem prepared to have any kind of argument with the commonwealth govt and that is to the detriment of South Australia’s interest.” The Transcontinental reached out to the state government for comment, but did not receive a reply. https://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/6454080/state-labor-party-weighs-in-on-nuclear-debate/ |
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Radioactive liquids in Olympic Dam waste pools are killing native birds
Olympic Dam Alert: BHP propose a major new Evaporation Pond 6 for radioactive acid liquor wastes that will continue deaths of hundreds of birds each year
The federal government are inviting comments on BHP’s “Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6 EPBC Act Referral 2019/8526” (scroll down to Date of Notice 21/10/2019).
Public submissions are only open until cob Monday 4th Nov 2019, see info on how to do so at end of this e-mail.
Please consider making a brief submission, key Recommendations are provided below, along with a Background Briefing Paper and a feature press article “BHP vs Birds”.
For info see “Migratory Birds at Risk of Mortality if BHP Continues Use of Evaporation Ponds” a 3 page Briefing written by David Noonan for the ACF, Friends of the Earth and Conservation SA (30 June 2019), at https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/ODM-Migratory-Birds-BHP-Evaporation-Ponds.pdf
see “BIRDS VS BHP: Evaporation ponds at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine are killing hundreds of birds” article in The Advertiser 10 July 2019
Can the Australian government impose a nuclear waste dump on South Australia?
Under section 109 of the Australian Constitution, if a state parliament and the federal Parliament pass conflicting laws on the same subject, then the federal law overrides the state law. Section 122 of the Constitution allows the federal Parliament to override a territory law at any time
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Tim Bickmore Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges, 26 Oct 19, SA Despite this reference to the Federal Act over-riding State laws; however there may be constitutional grounds rendering the FA invalid ie State’s Rights are enshrined in the Constitution & there is no provision for, nor mention of radioactive waste or nuclear power.
This deficiency was recognised decades ago [1959] as described by former WMC ODM exec Richard Yeeles (also adviser to 2 State Premiers inc current one) to the NFCRC….
“… Pointing to ‘other aspects of the application of nuclear science which put beyond all doubt the national character of the health and safety problems to which they give rise,’ the Committee raised the scenario that ‘it would be possible for dangers to health to occur in one state which would affect another state,’ such as ‘the spread of radioactive materials following a disaster.’ It also instanced, with considerable foresight as subsequent events would confirm, that ‘disposal of radioactive waste is an important problem demanding strict control. Waste from one state may need to be stored in another.’ In conclusion, the Committee advised the Government and the Parliament that: In the interests of health and safety, complex uniform regulations, standards and conditions are necessary in relation to the construction of reactors, operation of reactors, processing of fuel elements, use of isotopes, transport of radioactive material and the technical, industrial and medical standards of persons engaged. To facilitate such arrangements, ‘any doubts would be removed by an express power with respect to nuclear energy’ to be provided for in the Australian Constitution. – Report of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review, November 1959.The advice of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Review to amend the Australian Constitution to facilitate the development of a national nuclear industry was not taken up by the Menzies Government, or any subsequent federal administration.” p20 http://nuclearrc.sa.gov.au/…/Richard-Yeeles-19-05-2015.pdf https://www.facebook.com/groups/941313402573199/ |
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1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 