FlindersRanges Council delays nuclear waste dump ballot
Kimba council set a date while Hawker faces further delays, Transcontinental Amy Green 23 Aug19,
Following a week of meetings and debates surrounding the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility, both the Kimba and Flinders Ranges council have reached separate decisions moving forward.
The Kimba community will have its say on the proposal through a long-awaited ballot, which has been delayed for more than 12-months by litigation from native title holders.
While the decision to move forward with the ballot has been appealed by native title holders, District Council of Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson said their was no legal impediment to the ballot proceeding.
“Council’s position has always been to facilitate the ballot on behalf of the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia so our community could have its voice heard, and we reaffirmed that position at our ordinary meeting last week,” he explained.
“We were advised … that the Minister no longer requests that the Kimba and Hawker ballots to be run concurrently, so Council has commenced planning with a view to ballot papers being posted out on 3 October.”…….
Two independent reports have already been commissioned by the federal government, both the Cadence Economic Report and Professor Peta Ashworth’s University of Queensland Socio-Economic Study.
The Flinders Ranges Council is seeking government funding to commission further research.
Mr Slattery said the subsequent report will not be used as a decision making tool for the council…….
It is unclear if running the ballots non-concurrently will have any impact on the decision of where to place the national facility. https://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/6345929/waste-dump-ballot-to-run-non-concurrently-for-hawker-and-kimba/?fbclid=IwAR0o4bAGp7-RiD24rEhX5voZeaEx6QzfPwEHJ2iON20rOc0z5uSaeIVYumA
Resources Minister Matt Canavan in Kimba : pressing for a ‘Yes” vote in nuclear waste dump ballot?
The man on the right liberal politician member for Grey tendered his own property for a nuclear waste dump in his own town with out consulting any one not even his neighbor.
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Ballot date set as Resources Minister visits Kimba, Eyre Tribune, Rachel McDonald -22 Aug 19, A date has been set for the Kimba community ballot on the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF) project, opening the door for one of the two proposed Kimba sites to be selected before consultation is complete on a third site near Hawker.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan was in town this week as the Kimba District Council announced the timing of the ballot. Ballots will be posted to voters in the Kimba district from October 3, with voting set to close on November 7.
Over 80 community members gathered to speak to Mr Canavan at the Kimba Gateway Hotel on Thursday, with the process for determining whether the project had broad community support and the financial support budgeted for the district both major topics of conversation. Several locals were concerned that no money is currently budgeted to provide support for the community should the project not go ahead.
Mr Canavan said he was committed to providing support for the non host community to transition out of the site selection process. “I want to do something on that, we just haven’t formally made a decision,” he said. The process for determining whether the project had broad community support faced criticism from some community members, with several making the point that nearby communities that would not have the chance to vote in the ballot would be impacted by the eventual decision, including some residents in the Wudinna district that live closer to the proposed sites than some in the Kimba district. Mr Canavan said he would be looking at the possibility of directing some of the financial support available to assist the Kimba community through the site selection process to surrounding communities. He encouraged anyone affected to make a submission, and said the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science had already received over 1000 submissions to consider in conjunction with the ballot which he would be looking at with their location in mind. He reiterated that in regards to the community ballot result, he would not be giving a specific percentage figure ahead of time as to what the department would consider broad community support, instead weighing up the result alongside the submissions….. Mr Canavan indicated the government would be looking for a result “a lot more” than a simple majority in favour. The Kimba District Council’s decision to proceed with the ballot was not mirrored by the Flinders Ranges Council, which has requested an independent analysis be conducted before their ballot. Mr Canavan said the Kimba ballot would not be delayed to run concurrently with the Flinders Ranges ballot. He said it was possible a Kimba site could be chosen before consultation was completed in Hawker. “That’s a consequence of the Flinders Ranges Council asking for that information,” he said. Those residing within the Kimba District Council area who are enrolled to vote in federal, state and council elections will be issued a ballot, and out of town ratepayers who enrolled for the proposed ballot in 2018 are still eligible. The Kimba District Council will be contacting out of town ratepayers to make sure eligible voters have enrolled by the deadline at midday, September 13. https://www.eyretribune.com.au/story/6343998/ballot-date-set-as-resources-minister-visits-kimba/?fbclid=IwAR2MYYzVhvWQe5ep7Ul9nyKV1hgoFWkxpehaII3P5vF_tNqOxl |
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Iran is not a threat to Australia’s security
Trumped Up: Wiki cables show Australia thinks Iran is not the aggressor, Michael West, by Prof. Clinton Fernandes — 23 August 2019 Wikileaks cables reveal Iran presents no threat to Australia and little threat to the US. Instead, clear intelligence from the US, Australia and Iran confirms Iran, although portrayed as aggressive, has pursued a defensive military strategy. Clinton Fernandez reports.
Scott Morrison’s failure in diplomacy: the Pacific Forum and climate change
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And as we mark the first anniversary of Morrison’s rise to the top job on August 24 last year, the Pacific Islands Forum seems a good place to start in reviewing the his first year as PM, and what has happened to the country and our politics in the meantime……… Sleeping giant in the Pacific Straddling the minefield of internal Coalition tensions on climate and energy policy is a long way short of giving yourself any room to manoeuvre when you are talking to your Pacific Island neighbours. The Pacific Islands Forum was once a definite Second XI event that Australian prime ministers would try to offload onto a colleague. But it has now become a highly contested event, attended by enthusiastic delegations who consider they have an interest in the Pacific — from China to France and Britain. And this year’s forum came after Mr Morrison had announced the Pacific Step Up: Australia’s attempt to win back, or at least reinforce, its long history of influence in the region as China and other countries take an aggressive interest. The Islands wanted a commitment Australia would agree to start closing down its coal industry — a demand no side of politics was ever going to agree to. But what was revealing was that there was so little else we seemed to bring to the table, other than $500 million of rebadged aid funding which, it was said, would help with the effects of climate change, not its causes. Climate change no longer a hypothetical
The Government might have moved publicly beyond the argument of whether climate change is happening. But it is hard to escape the impression it thinks it is happening to someone else and that, therefore, the politics of the issue — apparently reinforced by the swing in coal seats at the election — is clear cut.But it isn’t of course. In the Torres Strait Islands, sea walls are being breached in big tides and monsoons. Houses, infrastructure, graves and other sacred sites are being lost. Elders from the same part of Australia that brought on the Mabo case have lodged a case against Australia in the United Nations Human Rights Committee, arguing that not doing anything about climate change is a breach of the islanders’ human rights. And if the cynics in the Government view this as not an issue because it involves a far-flung community, an Indigenous one at that, and (yawn) the United Nations, they might like to consider how the structures of their own government are now also being influenced by climate change. When the agriculture portfolio was carved up after the election, David Littleproud became the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management: a range of jobs which bears a striking resemblance to the need to deal with the varying impacts of climate change. Our politics have changed in the 12 months Mr Morrison has been Prime Minister. The Labor Party is no longer in the ascendancy; the tensions within the Coalition have taken on different forms. But those tensions have not gone away. We are in a holding pattern on crucial areas of policy on the economy; strategic issues; asylum seekers and climate and energy. The Coalition saw its election victory as an endorsement of the view the electorate is more conservative, and increasingly driven by people of faith. But making that political assessment of the views of Australians is different from having a clear-eyed assessment of where policy needs to go, whatever the electorate’s views may be… https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-24/scott-morrisons-first-year-as-prime-minister/11443562 |
Shock Jock Alan Jones takes time off insulting women, to praise thorium nuclear power
Thorium ‘more environmentally friendly and safer’ than nuclear https://www.news.com.au/video/id-5348771529001-6074698767001/thorium-more-environmentally-friendly-and-safer-than-nuclear August 20th 2019
Sky News host Alan Jones explains the element thorium, which is “seen by many as more environmentally friendly” than nuclear as an energy source. Mr Jones said thorium-based reactors are safer too because the reaction can easily be stopped and produce less waste that is radioactive. “It’s three times as abundant as uranium, we’re told, and there’s enough thorium in the United States alone to power America at its current energy level for a thousand years,” he said. The broadcaster noted that rolling blackouts for smelters and manufacturers has created a “crisis” for the energy market and suggested thorium as a possible answer.
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack is an international embarrassment
Key points:
- Pacific countries want Australia to do more about climate change as they face rising sea levels
- Nationals leader Michael McCormack said last week they would survive because they “pick our fruit”
- He has has offered an apology for the comment “if any insult was taken”
Mr McCormack made the comments last Friday as he sought to dismiss criticism levelled at Prime Minister Scott Morrison following the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), at which leaders claimed Australia was ignoring the threat climate change posed to the survival of vulnerable low-lying island nations.
[I] get a little bit annoyed when we have people in those sorts of countries pointing the finger at Australia and say we should be shutting down all our resources sector so that they will continue to survive,” he said.
“They will continue to survive, there’s no question they will continue to survive, and they will continue to survive with large aid assistance from Australia.
“They will continue to survive because many of their workers come here and pick our fruit.”
On Thursday he apologised…….
‘Appropriate from a drunk in a bar, not from a leader’
The PIF meeting in Tuvalu saw Mr Morrison pressure fellow leaders to water down the PIF’s final declaration, removing references to cutting carbon emissions by phasing out coal.
Former president of Kiribati Anote Tong said he could not understand how Mr McCormack thought it was a smart comment to make.
“If you’re drunk, and in a bar, it would be an appropriate place and time to make the comment. But if you’re speaking as a leader, really it is not appropriate,” he said.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, who hosted the Pacific Islands Forum, said the comments made Pacific Islanders sound like “paupers” who were begging for Australian support. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-22/mccormack-apology-pick-our-fruit/11438312
Bass Coast Shire Council declares Climate Emergency
Climate change is an emergency, Mirage News, 23 Aug 19
Bass Coast Shire Councillors have resolved that climate change poses a serious threat and should be treated as an emergency.
A motion was carried at last Wednesday’s Ordinary Council Meeting and will see Council develop a Bass Coast Climate Change Action Plan 2020-30, to set out how Bass Coast Shire can more effectively contribute to climate change mitigation and be more resilient and well adapted to the effects of a changing climate.
It will also include a target of zero net emissions by 2030 across Council operations as well as the wider community.
Bass Coast Mayor, Cr Brett Tessari, said while Council’s Natural Environment Strategy, adopted in 2016, recognises climate change, this declaration goes one step further….. https://www.miragenews.com/climate-change-is-an-emergency/
Nuclear submissions: people are “doubling up”? Sending the same submissions to 2 different Inquiries
Well – I am not able to read any submissions to FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia . But I have read all the 11 submissions so far published to New South Wales Inquiry into Uranium Mining and Nuclear Facilities (Prohibitions) Repeal Bill 2019. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2525&fbclid=IwAR2JjKI28uB4TZIJ38uZRlnQTmCQ3e7QyXk0 . They mostly pretty much read as if they were about setting up nuclear power in Austra ply using the same story to send to the Federal Inquiry. So there’s a hint – a way to save time?
Another hint – some writers are using some or all of their own previous submissions to the 2016 South Australian Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission.
In the next days and weeks Antinuclear. net will analyse submissions, as they appear on government websites.
About the CURRENT NUCLEAR SUBMISSIONS
It’s hard to grasp it all, with 4 nuclear Parliamentary submissions going on at the same time, and with short deadlines.
I am attempting to make sense of it all, starting with the Federal one FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia (Submissions close 16 September 2019 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Environment_and_Energy/Nuclearenergy?fbclid=IwAR0Sw4LB2qdcxSI6U6l67lI7Mwz9IEWw7_0RIq3mtN-nfpkfBn4z2VkQGog
A submission can be sent in hard copy by post, or online. It’s quite a performance to send a submission online, but well worth doing. One can refer to any or all of the Terms of Reference.
a. waste management, transport and storage,
b. health and safety,
c. environmental impacts,
d. energy affordability and reliability,
e. economic feasibility,
f. community engagement,
g. workforce capability,
h. security implications,
i. national consensus, and
j. any other relevant matter
Best to write your own submission, but there is also the option of using Friends of the Earth’s pro forma submission.
The Committee of Inquiry may publish submissions, but people (and nuclear companies) can ask for their submissions to be confidential.
Reaction against Robert Parker’s nuclear reactor plan for Ipswich, Queensland
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Nuclear for Ipswich to combat growing carbon emissions, Navarone Farrell, Queensland Times, August 21, 2019 SWANBANK is one of 10 sites in Queensland touted for a nuclear power station after talks at a lobby group summit.
Ipswich Residents Against Toxic Environments president Jim Dodrill said moving towards nuclear energy based on the premise of carbon footprint reduction “was nonsense”. “We’re absolutely opposed to (nuclear). It doesn’t make any sense economically, it doesn’t make any sense environmentally and it certainly doesn’t make any sense in the long term in regards to the waste from that form of power generation,” he said. “People do try to confuse the issue in relation to (nuclear’s) carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of nuclear is very, very high – not in the direct generation of power, but in the indirect. “You’re talking about moving the fuel over great distances, you’re talking about a lot of storage and the logistics of the fuel and the waste and the set up of that kind of generator. “It would be, in the long-term, no better than burning coal.” Mr Dodrill said moving towards another form of non-renewable energy would be a step backwards and that the rest of the world has moved on from nuclear. “It would make no sense for somewhere like Ipswich – or any city anywhere in Australia – to move into a type of power generation that’s (becoming defunct),” he said. “It’s nonsense altogether… (this agenda) is obviously being pushed by a particular sector of the far right in Australian politics.” Bundamba Labor MP Jo-Ann Miller, a fierce opponent of any more “stinks and smells” energy in Ipswich, ridiculed the idea. “Australia cannot even work out what it needs to do in relation to the nuclear plant in Sydney,” she said. “It’s certainly is at no stage of looking at nuclear-based power. Our city for many, many years has been a nuclear-free zone and that’s the way it should stay. “We do not want incinerators and we do not want nuclear power plants in our back yards, it’s a no-go.”… “How dare they consider Swanbank and my electorate without even having a conversation with the local people, and I can assure them that our locals would be very much against it,” she said. https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/regional/nuclear-for-ipswich-to-combat-growing-carbon-emissions/news-story/61af3052d10672573bb761eed16af606 |
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South Australian law – no public money towards nuclear waste dumping facility
NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE FACILITY (PROHIBITION) ACT 2000 – SECT 13
13—No public money to be used to encourage or finance construction or operation of nuclear waste storage facility
(1) Despite any other Act or law to the contrary, no public money may be appropriated, expended or advanced to any person for the purpose of encouraging or financing any activity associated with the construction or operation of a nuclear waste storage facility in this State.
(2) Subsection (1) does not prohibit the appropriation, expenditure or advancement to a person of public money for the purpose of financing the maintenance or sharing of information or to enable the State to engage with other jurisdictions.
The Kimba nuclear waste dump ballot – breaching South Australian law?
ENuFF[SA], 21 Aug 19, Today Kimba Council announced a date for a community ballot on the radioactive suppository ~ October 3rd.
http://www.kimba.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=408&c=10102
The legality of conducting such a ballot needs to be tested in the courts, since s.13 of the Radioactive Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act SA 2000 prohibits public monies being spent “…. encouraging or financing any activity associated with the construction or operation of a nuclear waste storage facility in this State.”
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/consol_act/nwsfa2000430/s13.html
This concerns & will affect ALL South Australians, not just Kimba. We should start a fund for a court injunction based upon s.13 “… any activity …” of the Radioactive Waste Facility [Prohibition] Act ~ & then engage Maurice Blackburn Lawyers [eg] to mount a case against the ballot.
Council announces dates for Kimba radioactive waste ballot
Council announces dates for Kimba radioactive waste ballot, Kimba District Council, 21 Aug 19, The Kimba community will have its say on the of the Commonwealth Government’s proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility at one of two nominated sites in the district from October 3.
The District Council of Kimba today announced the dates for the long-awaited ballot, which has been delayed for more than 12 months due to litigation.
While the favourable judgment received by Council in the Federal Court of Australia on 12 July has been appealed, Mayor Dean Johnson said that there was no legal impediment to the ballot proceeding to determine the level of community support as part of the overall site selection process.
“Council’s position has always been to facilitate the ballot on behalf of the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia so our community could have its voice heard, and we reaffirmed that position at our ordinary meeting last week,” he explained.
“We were advised this morning that the Minister no longer requests that the Kimba and Hawker ballots to be run concurrently, so Council has commenced planning with a view to ballot papers being posted out on 3 October.”
The ballot will be run in a manner identical to that scheduled to be held in 2018, and applications from eligible ratepayers and residents for inclusion on the voters roll will be open for a period of three weeks from 23 August 2019 until midday on 13 September 2019…..http://www.kimba.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=408&c=10102&fbclid=IwAR1y2ZfiGYV6gFpnvtTkWYWNs1_LcelO3cQ1iLG3RaC22tVRoHy0NHQ2igg
Secrecy in Sinister Matt Canavan’s meeting with nuclear waste dump organisations in Hawker, South Australia
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Last week the Barndioota Consultative Committee (BCC) held its first meeting in over a year since the process was stalled by a federal court injunction lodged by the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation. The scheduled meeting had preemptively caused a stir when a new code conduct restricted observers from note taking or recording the meeting without prior agreement from the department, independent convener and all representative members of the committee.
The issue was resolved and protocol was amended to allow note-taking, provided privacy of the speaker was respected. However a closed meeting scheduled between the Minister for Resources Matt Canavan, the Economic Working Group and the BCC has reignited accusations of secrecy.
Mr Canavan is scheduled to meet with the groups behind closed doors during a visit to Hawker this week, before opening the session up to the public…… https://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/6335519/community-tensions-simmer-over-waste-dump-closed-meeting-plans/?fbclid=IwAR0c6Dzo8ZuCMX78A29wUaFmSvsigcZR8AViGXSBE0ykoru3YU4WkEofEnM |
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Some caustic comments on Minister Canavan’s closed nuclear waste dump meeting in Hawker S.A.
These comments refer to both the article above and to the one discussed at https://antinuclear.net/2019/08/17/nuclear-waste-kimba-committee-even-discussed-transitioning-out-of-the-site-selection-process/
Raised eyebrows amongst anti-nuclear campaigners ….only? How about maybe the rest of the communities as well??
Also, last time I looked Kimba and Hawker were not islands!! Nope – they are DEFINITELY part of South Australia too!!! And ALL of South Australia will be affected by this National Nuclear Dump!
This is MEANT TO BE “AN OPEN AND TRANSPARENT PROCESS” so we have been told….When will we HAVE THAT???
Shan’t hold my breath!!…….DISGRACEFUL!!
Noel Wauchope Jeff Baldock’s Kimba property is allegedly the frontrunner for a future nuclear waste dump. No wonder this man is prominent at this meeting, happy with the progress and his financial prospects. Better than farming, hey?
Doug Potts The man who offered land owns both sites. I’m not sure if it’s free hold or lease. But why are they pushing, showing, brainwashing for these site especially when one is in a known sciesmic active area with floods as well. Also a West Australian site has said yes we would like this no interest is shown. Sadly the whole thing stinks like yesterday’s nappies!
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 