Secrecy on reports about the nomination of Muckaty Station as nuclear waste dump
The committee recommended in May 2010 that the bill be passed, acknowledging at the time that it did not have access to key documents and information
I find it a shock, as do many supporters of the Australian Labor Party, that coercive attempts to dump radioactive waste out in terra nullius did not end with the election of the Rudd government but have in fact been picked up and cut and pasted exactly where the former government left off. Our leaders may have changed, but our resources minister effectively has not. I continue to recall and remark that the government opened its first term with an apology and that, if this legislation is allowed to proceed, it will close this term owing another apology to Aboriginal Australians. I think the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee missed an important opportunity to right what will be seen, if we entrench it and lock it in, as a historical injustice that should not be allowed to stand.
Report and speech on the evidence provided by the NLC to the legal and constitutional affairs committee inquiry into Muckaty Bill Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) 8 Feb 2012 ……..This matter is extremely important. A particular community in the Northern Territory has been targeted for a national radioactive waste dump in Australia. We have never had such a facility before. It has been very, very contentious for governments of all kinds, and it is something that has been extremely vexed—an issue that neither Labor nor the conservatives have ever been able to get a grip on.
In this instance, the site has been targeted for a particular cattle station about 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, and there is a serious dispute over whether the land should have been nominated from the Northern Land Council to the federal government. It is a site that is explicitly named and targeted in the legislation that is before this chamber. It is not an abstract matter. This is a site that has actually been identified—we had this confirmed again yesterday—as the only site that was in consideration by the federal government. It was named and locked in in the legislation before the parliament, yet the people of that region have taken a very serious dispute to the Federal Court over whether that land should have been forwarded in the first place.
It was up to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee in examining the bill—which it did with extremely truncated and narrow terms of reference the year before last—to decide whether or not this bill should proceed. It did decide, in the absence of quite a number of very important documents that the Northern Land Council refused to disclose to the committee when they gave evidence, to recommend that the bill be proceeded with. At the time my office forwarded quite a detailed dissenting report saying that, in fact, the committee had not done its job; even within its narrow terms of reference, it simply had not done its job.
It had not sought the requisite information to allow it to properly fulfil its function, and it has done so again. Continue reading
Senator Scullion’s Northern Territory deal – $10 million for a radioactive waste dump
Senator Nigel Scullion (Country Liberal Party) – South Australia refused, as a Territory we didn’t have the capacity to refuse…. Territorians generally feel that this should not have gone in the Northern Territory
Senator Scott Ludlum (Australian Greens) – I think it’s totally inappropriate that the Bill is before the Senate while the Government doesn’t yet know whose land they are dealing with…. I find it offensive that in the middle of that court action the Senate’s going to be debating a bill that explicitly names and targets that site.
the doctors and the medical professionals over the last couple of months who’ve come out and said please stop using medical technology as an excuse for producing this waste, because there are other ways of providing for radio pharmaceuticals that don’t result in these long-lived carcinogenic wastes.
Transcript ABC Radio National breakfast, 08-February-2012
FRAN KELLY:
Well more than twenty years after the search started for a nuclear waste dump Labor’s Radioactive Waste Management Bill is listed for debate in the Senate today. The Bill has already gone through the House of Reps, and with Coalition support it will also pass in the upper house, giving the green light to development of Australia’s low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste facility at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory. This is despite bitter opposition from various Indigenous and environmental groups and from the Northern Territory Government itself. West Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam will try to delay a vote on the Bill, and the Country Liberal Party Senator for the Northern Territory, Nigel Scullion, wants an extra $10 million for the Territory. Both join me from Canberra this morning. Senators, good morning. Welcome to breakfast.
FRAN KELLY:
Senator Scullion, let’s begin with you. You once bitterly opposed a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. In fact back in 2005 you said, “there’s not going to be a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. The people of the Northern Territory don’t want anybody else’s nuclear waste. I represent them, so not on my watch”. Continue reading
Australian government bribes Northern Territory – a cancer ward for a nuclear waste dump
United Voice NT secretary Matthew Gardiner said: “There is still a Federal Court case hearing whether Muckaty Station can be used as the site, yet we have politicians bickering over what filthy lucre they can get.
“The waste will affect every Territorian, as it will be in our ports, on our trains and on our roads. “Every major town in the NT will see Australia’s lethal waste being transported past their offices, schools and homes.”
“Territorians pay taxes and deserve those facilities because we’re Australians, not because we sign up to a waste dump.”
Muckaty gets mucked up http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2012/02/09/287821_ntnews.html NT News, NIGEL ADLAM | February 9th, 2012 THE Territory is to charge “rent” for storing radioactive waste. Payments will be put into a special fund and spent on the cancer ward at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Only the NT and federal governments will be allowed to send low-level waste to the Muckaty dump near Tennant Creek free of charge. Canberra will kick off the fund with a $10 million payment. But that money will be taken back out of rent money from states and territories using the dump.
The fund is expected to collect several millions of dollars a year. Territory Senator Nigel Scullion used the fund as the price for the Coalition allowing the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill to be passed by the Senate. Continue reading
Australia’s New National Radioactive Waste Bill targets Muckaty Station, on Aboriginal land
Natalie Wasley, 8 Feb 12, David Wroe’s opinion piece in the Age on February 8 “First radioactive dump gets the green light” omits a numbers of key issues in the current battle to build the Northern Territory nuclear waste dump. NT Country Liberal Senator Scullion’s amendment to proposed legislation would provide a $10 million cash injection to the Territory as compensation (quite insignificant when you consider this facility will be operating for at least 300-400 years), but there was never any danger of the Coalition not supporting Minister Ferguson’s legislation.
As pointed out in the House of Reps debate, it bears uncanny similarity to the Coalition’s legislation it purports to replace, the main difference being it specifically targets Muckaty-a site nominated in the Howard era. Mr Wroe’s piece also ignores the ongoing opposition to the waste dump from the NT government and many Traditional Owners of the Muckaty Land Trust, who have built broad national support for their campaign and launched a federal court challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site. If I was David’s driving instructor, I would tell him to look more carefully at the traffic signals.
First radioactive dump gets the green light, The Age, David Wroe February 8, 2012 Australia is set to get its first radioactive waste dump with the government agreeing to a Coalition demand for $10 million for the Northern Territory, which will host the dump.
Energy Minister Martin Ferguson told ABC radio’s PM program yesterday that the government would agree to a demand from Northern Territory Nationals Senator Nigel Scullion for the $10 million fund for education, health and infrastructure, ensuring the passage of the legislation through the Senate.
The preferred site is Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek. The dump will take medical waste and reprocessed fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/first-radioactive-dump-gets-the-green-light-20120207-1r5ge.html#ixzz1lqYBS82y
Australia’s Labor and Liberals agree on bribing Northern Territory to agree to nuclear waste dump
Canberra dangles $10m nuclear waste dump carrot, ABC Radio 774, By Anna Henderson and Louise Willis February 08, 2012 The Federal Government has made an agreement with the Opposition that will pave the way for Australia’s first national radioactive waste dump.
The Radioactive Waste Management Bill is listed for debate in the Senate today.
Northern Territory Country Liberals Senator Nigel Scullion says he has secured Labor support for a minimum $10 million fund that would be paid to the jurisdiction that accepts the facility.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says the Government is prepared to support the Opposition plan.
The Greens want the legislation delayed.
They say details surrounding the Government’s preferred site of Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory have not been finalised……
Greens Senator Scott Ludlum says it is wrong to proceed while Indigenous groups wage a court battle over ownership of the land.
“I think it is totally inappropriate that the Bill is before the Senate while the Government doesn’t yet know whose land they are dealing with,” he said.
“There is a very serious challenge by the traditional owners of the Barkly region, a challenge to the Federal Government and to the Northern Land Council.
“They are basically saying they had no right to give up the land in the first place. “I find it offensive.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-08/20120208-2410m-muckaty-nuclear-waste-dump-carrot/3817866/?site=melbourne
Australian Greens move to prevent hasty imposition of nuclear waste dump in Northern Territory
The Australian Greens today vowed to continue the fight against the planned nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.
The Government has listed the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill for debate tomorrow. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said Labor’s attempt to force the Bill through the Senate before the completion of a Federal Court case over the status of the land in question was a disgrace.
“The Traditional Owners do not want this eternal radioactive waste dump on their country. The locals don’t want it. The Northern Territory government does not want it. Traditional Owners visited the parliament last year and Dianne Stokes wept here telling the story of her country. There is a Federal Court case currently unresolved as to the status of this land, yet the Government pushes on – led by a minister obsessed with the nuclear industry.”
“This legislation does not just represent a problem for Muckaty – it places enormous and virtually unchecked power in the hands of one minister.”
“In 2007 the IAEA noted examples of states which, having used undemocratic methods lacking public involvement and acceptance, have ‘had to reconsider their programs’. One of the conclusions of the study was that ‘reassessment can become necessary because past decisions were not reached through socially acceptable process’.”
“Last month, in a report to the US Energy Secretary, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future strongly recommended a ‘consent-based approach to siting nuclear waste storage… noting that ‘trying to force such facilities on unwilling communities has not worked’. And indeed Labor’s stated policy aims to ‘establish a consensual process of site selection, which looks to… the centrality of community consultation and support’, yet the Government ignores both Labor policy and the lessons of history.”
“The Greens will move an amendment to establish a genuinely Independent Commission on the Long Term Safe Storage, Transport and Management of Australia’s Radioactive Waste to find a real solution to this problem.”
“South Australia resisted a nuclear waste dump and won. A Territory has less power and that is why the Government, like the Howard Government before it, targeted the Northern Territory – because it believed it could not resist. But it can and it will resist.”
Senator Ludlam will move to amend the bill to delay its debate until after the resolution of the case over the traditional ownership of the land in the Government’s sights.
How Australia’s Energy Minister sabotages renewable energy
ARENA Needed To Address Solar Flagships ‘Mess’ : Milne, by Energy Matters, 6 Feb 2012, Australia’s Solar Flagships program has faced continual delays and problems, sparking a call from the Greens to expedite the setting up of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to take over the administration of the scheme.
Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne has blasted Energy Minister Martin Ferguson for his handling of Solar Flagships to date, an initiative designed to see construction of large-scale, grid connected solar farms.
“Martin Ferguson has mismanaged this process from start to finish, helping to keep renewable energy from challenging coal’s dominance,” said Senator Milne.
“It is vital to see ARENA get off the ground as soon as possible to take political interference out of renewable energy scheme design and decisions and put them in the hands of a statutory independent authority.”…. Continue reading
Australian farmers missing opportunity to profit by farming energy
Farmers squeezed out of energy boon, MATTHEW CAWOOD, Stock and Land 04 Feb, 2012 LANDHOLDERS should be capitalising on seismic changes in how we generate energy, says Matthew Wright, but instead they are being
pushed aside.
Mr Wright, executive director of Beyond Zero Emissions, thinks the thrust of current government policy will be to deny many landholders the ability to profit from wind generation, while compromising the enterprises of other landholders who host coal seam gas (CSG) operations without sharing in CSG profits.
Beyond Zero Emissions, a non-profit organisation, has the goal of moving Australia “from a 19th century fossil fuel based economy to a 21st century renewable powered clean tech economy”.
Wind turbines are “about as benign as it gets” for power generation, Mr Wright said, adding CSG is a “fairly destructive option for resource exploitation”.
Continue reading
Greens and Australian Conservation Foundation speak out against Lynas plan for Malaysia
Rare-earths decision big boost for Lynas SMH, Peter Kerr and Vince Chadwick February 3, 2012 “…….Dave Sweeney of the Australian Conservation Foundation said the low-lying, coastal environment meant holding ponds containing toxic waste might be breached during the wet season.
Mr Sweeney also drew attention to the timing of the board’s decision, which came days after a member of the opposition party in Malaysia said her party would not approve the plant if it won power at coming elections. ”There would be questions being asked and confidence being eroded in the integrity of the approval process, which appears to have become politicised,” Mr Sweeney said.
Lynas had been unable to start exporting ore to Malaysia for refining since its $100 million Mount Weld mine in Western Australia opened in August.
Federal Greens senator Scott Ludlam questioned the business model of exporting rare earths to Malaysia, which takes three weeks, rather than processing them at home. ”This imposes an economic cost on Australia and an environmental cost on Malaysia,” he said.
Western Australia’s new Labor leader speaks with forked tongue
from our Western Australian commentator 30 Jan 12 Few remember McGowan’s sabotage of Geoff Gallop’s Core Consultative Committee on Hazardous Waste (3Cs) a committee dedicated to reforming the hazardous waste industry, protecting public health and a fragile biodiversity.
Remember the Bellevue chemical fire at a hazardous waste plant, allegedly the largest chemical fire in Australia’s history? The disgraceful mismanagement of the Brookdale hazardous waste plant? The lead poisoning of Esperance and the destruction of 9,500 native birds by Magellan Metals? The 400 strong protest march in Kalgoorlie against the foulness of Total Waste Management, operating just 500 metres from a restaurant and a fuel station?
Industry, lobbyists of the haz. waste industry (including Burke and Grill) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry were jubilant when McGowan sacked the 3Cs without explanation in November 2006.
It will come to pass when the people of WA will understand that both Barnett and McGowan are the dancing boys of industry – both wear the same hat in the environmentally desecrated state of WA which has 85,000 abandoned and toxic mine sites.
December 8th, 2011: “No Labor minister or public servant responsible to a Labor minister will issue any approval to facilitate a uranium mining project under a WA Labor government. It does not matter how advanced the projects are. I’m putting the industry on notice. You won’t have your final approvals by the time of the next election and they will not be granted if WA Labor is elected.” (Eric Ripper)
The duplicitous McGowan speaks with forked tongue. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Western Australian Labor’s new policy could lead to hasty, botched uranium mining applications
“A real concern and a real danger is that companies will try and short circuit what is already a very weak environmental impact assessment process, just to get something into the bank so that they’re through before a potential change of government,”
Has Labor’s shift on uranium mining started a race? ABC News, Rebecca Boteler, 28 Jan 12 The new Labor leader Mark McGowan has changed his party’s stance on uranium mining in Western Australia. But what does it mean for those companies in the race to mine uranium?
Mr McGowan announced the party’s backflip on uranium mining on his first day in the job. The new policy means any mines already operational by the time the Labor party next comes into power will not be shut down and any companies that already have approval can continue development.
However, Labor will not allow any new mines to be given the green light. Continue reading
Land grab and discrimination against Aboriginals remain in Australia’s draft Constitutional changes
A recommendation that jars, however, is Section 116A that would prohibit racial discrimination. It is not long ago that the federal government over-rode the Racial Discrimination Act to launch its outrageously discriminatory Northern Territory Intervention in 2007 during the Howard era. The Rudd and Gillard governments embraced the policy. It is not ancient history.
The discrimination was said to be ended by atrocious legislation that extended aspects of the Intervention to disadvantaged people of all backgrounds in the Northern Territory and beyond.
While the original Intervention legislation is approaching its sunset clause to be replaced by the cheerier sounding “Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory”, the land-grabbing intent continues. Residents of remote Aboriginal communities are being pressured to sign regular leases on their property. Sign on the dotted line before the August
deadline or lose it. Funding for housing in remote communities is frozen in favour of construction in faraway towns. Opposition leader Tony Abbott is rubbing his hands together on behalf of resource developers referring to the current situation in the NT as that of a “failed state”.
Words won’t replace need for struggle, The Guardian 25 Jan 2012, Symbols and words can be powerful and useful; they can unite and heal. But nobody is impressed by lip service or tokenism. In the lead-up to Invasion Day (or Survival Day as it also known) and which is officially celebrated as Australia Day, such judgements are being made about a government-sponsored report on proposed changes to the constitution.
Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution is the work of a panel headed by Aboriginal leader Professor Pat Dodson and senior lawyer Mark Leibler AC. It is said to be the result of discussions with “… more than 4,600 people, in more than 250 meetings in 84 locations across the country and received more than 3,500 submissions.”
The recommendations include “Recognising that the continent and its islands now known as Australia were first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; Acknowledging the continuing relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with their traditional lands and waters; Respecting the continuing cultures, languages and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; Acknowledging the need to secure the advancement of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
Commentators have noted that solid majorities in polls taken on these issues have been reflected in the recommendations. The fact that attitudes to questions like recognition of the first peoples of Australia are improving is certainly to be welcomed. Continue reading
Australia’s Family First Party jumps on the anti wind power bandwagon
Better coordination urged in wind farm fight, ABC News, January 23, 2012 The Family First Party says a state-wide group is needed to tackle wind farm developments. A number of groups have been formed to oppose wind farms in various regions, including Keyneton near the Barossa Valley.
The party’s Rob Brokenshire says a more coordinated approach will be discussed at a forthcoming meeting. “The Government and those that are pro-wind farm at all costs want to brand them in a certain name but I won’t accept that,” he said… Mr Brokenshire says he is organising a meeting for early next month.
“One of the main items of the meeting is the concept of forming a state-wide group that looks at the big picture of the impact from wind farms on rural and regional people,” he said…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-23/better-coordination-urged-in-wind-farm-fight/3787778
Uranium mining in Western Australia’s still dubious despite Labor’s new wishy washy policy
Uranium miners fear uncertainty despite Labor policy change, SMH, Rania Spooner January 24, 2012 –The company likely to become WA’s first uranium miner has welcomed a significant change in WA Labor’s policy on uranium mining, but warned the fledgling industry still faced plenty of uncertainty.
Within hours of taking over WA Labor yesterday, Opposition leader Mark McGowan announced the party would pull away from its pledge to shut down any approved uranium project if elected next year.
Mr McGowan said WA Labor remained against uranium mining and would not approve any new applications, but the change in policy meant the state would not be open to compensation claims.
Applications only part way through the approvals process would not be allowed to continue under a Labor government.
One or two miners are so advanced in the approval process that they are likely to get the nod before the March, 2013 election.
One of those is South Australia-based Toro Energy, which is among a handful of uranium hopefuls to have pursued WA deposits since the Colin Barnett government lifted the state’s long-standing ban in November 2008…….
Greens nuclear affairs spokesman and Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam condemned the policy “backflip”, saying Labor couldn’t “have it both ways” on uranium.
“It is a dangerous, toxic industry that operates to provide fuel to the dangerous, toxic nuclear energy sector. If Labor is opposed to uranium mining they should make their position clear,” Senator Ludlum said in a statement.
“Mr McGowan has spoken of providing certainty to the industry.
“It is far better to let the nuclear industry know it is certain they have no future in Western Australia.”..
South Australian Government lackey of mining interests in legal action against Aborigines
ATTORNEY GENERAL TO APPEAL MINING BAN, Australian Mining By Andrew Duffy on 18 January 2012 South Australia’s Attorney General John Rau is appealing a decision by the state’s Supreme Court to block development of an exploration lease held by Argonaut Resources.
On Friday the court ruled exploration at the Lake Torrens tenement could not go ahead after an Aboriginal Heritage Site Card was lodged over the area. The court ruled the development had denied procedural fairness to the traditional owners, the Kohatha Wati and Adnyamathanha people.
According to Adelaide Now Rau has decided to appeal the decision on advice from Crown Law…..
the decision was a worrying sign for the SA mining industry, and allowed Government to “veto exploration and mining activities” on land where traditional ownership could be asserted…. http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/attorney-general-to-appeal-mining-ban
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 