Unique Australian species – the giant cuttlefish now more threatened by Olympic Damn expansion.
It has also emerged that subtle changes to the wording of the Olympic Dam mine’s approval watered down recommended protection of the giant cuttlefish.
following a meeting with Mr Burke, the department [had] backflipped.
Greens SA leader Mark Parnell, who obtained the documents under Freedom of Information, said it would be much harder for the department to prosecute BHP Billiton if anything went wrong.
Cuttlefish population in decline: BHP, Heather Kennett | Brad Crouch, 4 June 12 http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/cuttlefish-population-in-decline-bhp/story-e6frea83-1226381517382 June 02, 2012 A NEW study has found a serious reduction in giant cuttlefish numbers in the region around Whyalla. Research commissioned by BHP Billiton – which wants to build a desalination plant near Whyalla – has found the cuttlefish population is already in serious decline ahead of hyper-saline brine being pumped from a future plant into Spencer Gulf….
. Tens of thousands of giant cuttlefish head to the Whyalla region each
winter to breed, which has become a tourist attraction. Their annual ritual has also become a pivotal environmental argument against BHP Billiton’s coastal desalination plant, which is part of its planned expansion of the Olympic Dam mine. ….. Continue reading
Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman on behalf of the polluting industries
The move comes as a UNESCO report warned coastal developments in Queensland were posing a risk to the reef.
Tony Abbott’s push to cut green tape would benefit (?) Queensland first by: Steven Scott The Courier-Mail June 04, 2012 QUEENSLAND would become the first state to gain greater control over environmentally sensitive developments if Tony Abbott wins the next election.
The federal Opposition has struck a preliminary deal with the Newman Government to allow it to take control of all approvals under federal environment laws, with the exception of offshore developments. Continue reading
BHP’s decision on Olympic Damn megamine delayed till late 2013?
BHP keeps South Australia waiting on Olympic Dam board decision , BY: MICHAEL OWEN The Australian May 31, 2012 BHP uranium president Dean Dalla Valle says the company “would deal with it then” if a board decision on the expansion of Olympic Dam could not be made by the government’s deadline of December 8.
“There will be a decision at the end of the year and that’s all we can say for now,” Mr Dalla Valle said yesterday….. company analysts now expect that Olympic Dam and other “mega” projects under consideration by the company will not be given the go-ahead until the December half of next year in response to rising economic uncertainty…
Western Australian govt will not allow uranium to be shipped from W.A. ports
WA has no plans to change stance on uranium , Business Spectator, 25 May 12 The Liberal-Nationals government of West Australia has no plans to ship yellowcake uranium to overseas markets due to a lack of suitable ports, “because they are either surrounded by residential areas or do not have container facilities”, according to a report by Federal Labor MP Melissa Parke said that the WA government’s decision recognised “that the people of Western Australia are strongly against the mining and movement of uranium”………. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/WA-has-no-plans-to-ship-yellowcake-pd20120525-UM2U9?OpenDocument&src=hp26,
Sales of uranium to India not yet government policy? no date set for negotiations
Division delays sales of uranium to India by: David Crowe and Mark Dodd The Australian May 25, 2012 LABOR’S landmark policy change to allow uranium sales to India is yet to be put into effect amid divisions within the government over whether to proceed with a deal seen as crucial to the relationship between the two countries.
Talks on a bilateral deal are yet to begin despite assurances last year that negotiations would be under way by now and assumptions in India that talks had already begun.
Julia Gillard overcame objections from some of her cabinet colleagues to secure the policy shift at the ALP conference last December, drawing praise from India for strengthening the two nations’ strategic partnership.
But ministers are still considering whether to adopt the party platform as government policy and there is no date set for the formal negotiations to begin.
The delays come as Canberra also decides on Western Australia’s first uranium mine in the face of calls from the Greens for tougher safeguards on the Toro Energy project despite its approval by the state’s environmental regulator……
“Australia and India are not currently negotiating a civil nuclear co-operation (‘safeguards’) agreement,” a department official told The Australian. “Before exports could take place, a civil nuclear co-operation agreement would need to be concluded to cover supply of Australian uranium to India.”…..http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/division-delays-sales-of-uranium-to-india/story-fn59nm2j-1226366170546
Labor and Liberal Party leaders for Barkly, NT, both oppose Muckaty nuclear waste dump
Barkly candidates united against Muckaty, ABC Alice Springs By Emma Sleath (Cross Media Reporter), 24 May 12 They’re on opposite sides of the political divide but Member for Barkly, Gerry McCarthy and Country Liberal Party candidate Bec Healy stand united on Muckaty.
The CLP’s candidate for the Barkly, Bec Healy says she does not want to see the proposed nuclear waste facility at Muckaty Station go ahead. “I know some of the traditional owners out at Muckaty…and you have to be sensitive with how people live, that’s their life and I’m willing to support them,” she says.
The Federal Government put forward the proposal to build a radioactive waste management facility at Muckaty Station in 2008. The station is located 120kms north of Tennant Creek and leased from Indigenous landholders.
Ms Healy stands united with current Labor Member for Barkly, Gerry McCarthy who maintains his strong opposition to the proposal.
“This is prime cattle country, this is important Indigenous land, this is a very important part of the Territory’s future, it doesn’t need to be contaminated with nuclear material,” he says.
Both candidates stand against their own parties federally on the issue……
Last week the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) announced their opposition to the Muckaty proposal, saying that they will actively support any trade unions ‘refusing to cooperate with the implementation of the policy.’…..
“Why put it over the top of our water table?” says local business owner Wayne Walsh
“I don’t think they realise that we’ve got so much water underneath up here…one mistake and the whole territory’s dead, all the water’s gone.”…….. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/05/24/3510368.htm
EPA recommendation on uranium mine a dangerous new low – Australian Greens
“Toro has not revealed estimates of future mine closure liability and has not submitted a final rehabilitation plan. This is remarkable given the company intends for post-closure liability to pass to Australian taxpayers only 10 years after mining ceases, though the consequences of the mine will endure for many centuries. This project should not proceed until there is a full public inquiry as provided for under the Act into the wider environmental and public health consequences of uranium mining in WA.”
May 21st, 2012 The Environmental Protection Agency should change its name after today’s appalling recommendation to approve Western Australia’s first uranium mine at Wiluna, WA Greens said today.
Greens national spokesperson on nuclear policy Senator Scott Ludlam said “The proposal by Toro Energy is full of gaping holes. If the EPA is prepared to back this half-baked, messy scheme – it sets a dangerous low standard for uranium mining in Western Australia”.
“The EPA recommends that the Minister ‘notes the EPA has concluded that it is likely that the EPA’s objectives would be achieved’. Well if this shoddy plan is all it takes to achieve the EPA’s objectives, then its objectives need to be reformed urgently in the interest of public health and safety.”
In his submission to the EPA, Senator Ludlam had identified a several alarming flaws in company’s impact assessment of the proposed mine. Continue reading
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) joins opposition to Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan
“Today the unions passed this motion in Sydney and next week the community is holding a protest in Tennant Creek to mark five years since Muckaty was nominated as the possible waste dump. It is time that the government listened to all the Traditional Owners because we are not going to stop until they stop”.
Trade union support strengthens NT nuclear waste dump campaign Muckaty Traditional Owners have welcomed news that Australia’s peak trade union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has today committed to actively support the campaign against a proposed radioactive waste dump at Muckaty, 120km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
The ACTU National Congress unanimously passed a motion (full text below) expressing ‘disappointment that the highly contested Muckaty Land Trust site will continue to be pursued’ and agreeing to stand ‘in solidarity with Traditional Owners and communities resisting federal government plans for a radioactive waste dump’.
The move comes as a further blow to plans by Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to advance the highly contested waste dump site at Muckaty. Recent legislation, the National Radioactive Waste Management Act (NRWMA), names Muckaty as the only site to be further assessed for a national radioactive dump and allows the Minister to override any state or territory law that would hinder the dump being built, but the plan faces growing political, legal and community challenge. Continue reading
Vicious attacks on Julia Gillard, Australia’s first woman Prime Minister
Both sexes are to blame for misogynist vitriol against Gillard, WA Today Eve Mahlab, May 8, 2012 Vicious attacks against the PM say more about our society than about her.
RUBY Hamad is right when she claimed on this page that hatred of women exists in the West. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Australian witch hunt for Julia Gillard, the first woman who has dared to become Australia’s prime minister.
Hamad is also right when she writes that patriarchy (usually defined as a system of society in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it) isn’t just men oppressing women, but requires the participation of women. This explains why some of the Prime Minister’s severest critics are women……
She has negotiated a tax deal with the mining industry. Although controversial, her carbon tax may encourage investment in renewable energy sources, investment most Australians see as worthwhile. ...
It is high time that decent Australian men and women spoke out against the misogyny being demonstrated so viciously against our first woman prime minister.
: http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/politics/both-sexes-are-to-blame-for-misogynist-vitriol-against-gillard-20120507-1y8zg.html#ixzz1usfmh1mg
Paul Howes’ fight against the environment
Green flak for Howes, The Mercury JARRAD BEVAN | May 13, 2012 THE Greens have dismissed comments by Australian Workers Union secretary Paul Howes that the state’s future depends on standing up to the environmental movement. They say it is “populist grandstanding” from an old-school unionist stuck in a last-century economic mindset.
Greens leader Nick McKim said Tasmania instead needed to smarten its economy by transitioning away from an over-reliance on market-exposed heavy industries and bulk commodity exports.
“It’s the attitude of people like Mr Howes that put Tasmania’s economy in the vulnerable position it’s now in, and he has the temerity to fly in from the mainland and give us a lecture on economics,” he said.
Mr Howes said Tasmania’s main political parties had lost the public-relations battle to the environmental movement…..
Liberal MP Matthew Groom backed Mr Howes, saying Tasmanians were sick of being treated as the “plaything” for environmental groups or the inner-city constituency of the Labor Party in Sydney and Melbourne.
“They are sick of a Government that panders to green groups….. http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/05/13/327741_tasmania-news.html
TASMANIA needs to stand up to the environmental movement for the sake of its future, a Labor Party powerbroker says. T he Mercury Tassie told to toughen up MATT SMITH | May 12, 2012 Paul Howes, secretary of the powerful Australian Workers Union, said the Government needed to resist the environmental movement … Mr Howes said Tasmania’s main political parties had lost the public relations battle to the Greens and the environmental movement.
Most Australians will be better off under the carbon tax
Most shielded from carbon tax, say analysts Brisbane Times, May 11, 2012 – The federal government has “more than compensated” low and middle Australia for the carbon tax in this year’s budget, according to an academic body that last year found average households would be better off under the system. While large businesses rather than individuals would directly pay the carbon tax, the flow-on effect would see householders pay through the tax’s impact on petrol, gas and electricity prices.
Last October, the University of Canberra’s National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling found Australian households will be an average $2.50 per week better off under the federal government’s carbon package….. Last night, NATSEM principal researcher Ben Phillips said the additional announcements in Tuesday night’s federal budget made the package “very generous” for low income earners.
The “cash splash” included a $600 boost to family tax payments, a one-off school children cash bonus up to $820 and up to $210 for the unemployed, single parents and young people.
“Not only will they be covered for the carbon price, but they will be covered well in excess of that carbon price,” Mr Phillips said……
Commonwealth Bank economist James McIntyre said the CBA estimated about 80 per cent of Australian families were shielded from the impact of the carbon tax.
The crucial point was the tax cuts for people with a taxable income of $80,000, he said.
Mr McIntyre said in the 2009-10 tax year, 83 per cent of the population had taxable income below $80,000.
People earning between $30,000 and $65,000 will get a tax cut of $303 – equivalent to about $6 a week – and smaller tax deductions remain up to $80,000.
Mr McIntyre said that was why the government targeted that income level for tax cuts.
He said the federal government payments “over-compensated” many families and adequately compensated most.
“I think it over-compensates around 33 per cent of households, 40 per cent of households get about two-thirds of the compensation,” he said.
“And for the remaining households – above $80,000 – there is small compensation – but it covers around 15 to 20 per cent of the cost.”…. Details about payments to various recipients can be found in the fact sheets here.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/most-shielded-from-carbon-tax-say-analysts-20120510-1yfbm.html#ixzz1ubqMRq8a
Australia’s budget : handouts to mining companies far exceed carbon price
Reaction to Federal Budget 2012 SMH,May 8, 2012 http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/reaction-to-federal-budget-2012-20120508-1yba0.html#ixzz1uPdyOZDc
“……..DON HENRY, Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Score: 6.5/10 “The federal budget’s failure to tackle wasteful, inefficient tax breaks that promote fossil fuel use and pollution is a blow to Australia’s environment.
Continuing the senseless diesel fuel handout to mining companies is a much bigger slug to Australian households
than any carbon price, with the handouts to mining companies projected to increase to $182 per taxpayer, per year, costing $9.4 billion over the forward estimates.
The budget includes full funding for the climate package, including assistance for households, a boost for
renewable energy through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Biodiversity Fund – we warmly welcome this. But Australia should not be axing tax breaks for green buildings and slashing the aid budget, while leaving untouched billions of dollars of tax breaks for mining and resource industries to pollute our environment. The budget contains $14 of new spending on roads for every $1 spent on rail – this is the wrong priority.”
Member for Northern Victoria Donna Petrovich called to account on her claims against wind power
there is an onus on Ms Petrovich to come clean on her research if she is to stand by her claim that communities right across the Macedon and McHarg Ranges and big chunks of Central Victoria are “not appreciative” of this form of green and sustainable energy.
Yes to renewables
http://yes2renewables.org/2012/05/07/where-did-the-no-go-zones-come-from/Where did the ‘No Go’ zones come from? May 7, 2012 by Cam Walker The following is a letter from last weeks Macedon Ranges Weekly. Where did the ‘No Go’ zones come from? Last year, the state government created a series of ‘No Go’ zones, which block wind energy developments across much of Victoria, including the Macedon – McHarg Ranges. The government seems to think these ranges extend almost as far north as Bendigo.
Member for Northern Victoria Donna Petrovich has said in state parliament that the No Go zones were “carefully” selected where communities “on the whole have told us that they are not appreciative of wind farms”.
Given the controversial nature of the No Go zones, and the widespread support for the Macedon and Castlemaine community wind proposals, it would be useful to understand how Ms Petrovich consulted the community
to reach her conclusion that wind power is unpopular. Continue reading
Now they’re trying to blame the Australian govt for doubts about Olympic Dam’s future
You have to sorta scour the news, to realise that the BHP board has not yet decided to go ahead with the new monster Olympic Dam uranium mine. The decision delay is due to the massive cost of the massive project – which won’t make any money for decades.
However – let’s all pounce on the Australian government’s budget plans as the cause of the delay. (Let’s just forget that the project benefits from all sorts og government exemptions, including the new Mining Resources Tax)
Diesel rebate may delay Olympic Dam Sun Herald, by: By Christopher Russell AdelaideNow May 03, 2012 BHP Billiton could be forced to delay expansion of the Olympic Dam mine if the Federal Government scraps its diesel fuel rebate in next week’s Budget, investment analysts say.
The company hinted at an investors’ conference in Sydney yesterday that another major project, at Port Hedland in WA, would be funded before Olympic Dam. Analysts at the conference said a fuel tax change could make the
difference and cause a delay to Olympic Dam….. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/diesel-rebate-may-delay-olympic-dam/story-fn7j19iv-1226345385388
Queensland govt – no plans for uranium mining, despite uranium lobbyist Tony McGrady
No plans for uranium mining ban rethink http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-02/no-plans-for-uranium-mining-ban-rethink/3984350?section=business By Stephen Smiley ABC News May 02, 2012 The State Government says it has no plans to revisit Queensland’s ban on uranium mining.
New Mount Isa Mayor Tony McGrady is advising two uranium companies and also lobbied for the former Bligh government to overturn Labor’s ban on uranium mining. Mr McGrady says he will be talking to the State Government “at every opportunity” about developing a uranium industry in the state’s north-west.
However in a statement, Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps says uranium is not among the new Government’s mining priorities.
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 