In reality Kimba’s support for nuclear waste dump was only 49.94% of those eligible to vote”
 ENuFF South Australia, No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 7 Nov 19Barndioota SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) published
“Having stated in the Senate that he would require a number in the vicinity of 65% of the community voting to progress with the proposal, Minister Canavan chose to push Kimba into phase two of the process with a supporting vote of 57%. This |
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In Kimba 62% of locals vote in favour of nuclear waste dump
Kimba locals back nuclear waste dump. The Advertiser, 7 Nov 19, Kimba residents have backed a proposal to build a radioactive storage site near the Eyre Peninsula town.
The Australian Electoral Commission conducted a five-week ballot on the issue, on behalf of Kimba Council, with votes being finalised today.
The ballot found 62 per cent of voters backed the proposal.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the results showed “significant” community support for the project, which involves building a storage site for low and intermediate level medical waste.
The Government is considering building the storage site at either “Napandee” or “Lyndhurst” near Kimba, or “Wallerberdina”, near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges.
Mr Canavan said he would consider the results alongside other feedback and technical information relating to the project, once a separate ballot in the Flinders Ranges was complete.
Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson said a nuclear waste site would provide much needed jobs and economic stimulus for the region.
If approved in the area, 45 people would work at the waste site once it was built, and the community would receive a $31 million package from the Federal Government including some money already earmarked for local projects in the lead up to the vote.
“In times of drought, you just get reminded again how reliant we are on agriculture,” Mr Johnson said.
“An alternative industry would be good for the town. Whether this is the right one or not, we’ll find out shortly.”
Mr Johnson said he was “incredibly proud” of his community following four years of consultation.
“To have a 90 per cent participation rate shows how strongly engaged our community has been,” he said.
Kimba farmer Peter Woolford, who has been campaigning against the waste dump plan, said the result showed there was still a lot of opposition to the project.
“The Eyre Peninsula is such an amazing place,” said Mr Woolford, chair of the lobby group No Radioactive Waste on Agricultural Land in Kimba or SA.
“Why would you expose your export industry here to any risk at all?”
Mr Woolford said there had been little increase in public support for the project over the past four years, despite the community receiving $4 million in Federal funding for projects as part of the campaign to find a site.
Hawker’s voting period begins on Monday, after the council voted to delay its ballot until a risk assessment was completed.
Mayor Peter Slattery said the council was keen to gauge the public’s views after months of uncertainty on the project’s future.
“If we find they’re opposed to this, we know it’s game over and we can all quietly relax,” Mr Slattery said.
“And if the community are supportive of this that gives us the direction to move forward. “Given how difficult and divisive it’s been, we’re really looking forward to having some direction and resolution.”
The votes had been delayed since last year, when two Aboriginal associations said they would take legal action to stop the ballots, because traditional land owners who did not live in the districts were excluded.”
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/…/6a04b1b53b6fc5f00b69031be1…
Bangarla Aboriginal people conducted their OWN ballot on nuclear waste dump plan for Kimba, South Australia
Kazzi Jai shared a link. Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste In The Flinders Ranges, 6 Nov 19 On ABC 639 news this morning…..The Barngala People have conducted their OWN ballot through the AEC (the Kimba ballot is being done by the AEC as well) and will forward the results to Canavan once tallied.
News segment 02:32:14 to 02:33:00
Podcast will only stay up for 6 days.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/northandwest/programs/breakfast/breakfast/11661112
Kimba’s Dramatic drop in property values, since nominated for nuclear dump
Zac Eagle Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In 
Flinders Ranges SAProperty values dropped nearly 30% in 12 months since Kimba nominated for a dump.
Destruction of local communities in more ways than one. Kimba was 496th in South Australia, now 952nd. more https://www.facebook.com/groups/941313402573199/
Nuclear waste containers in transit to South Australian dump, could be vulnerable to bushfires.
“The Fire Brigade Union contradicted this view stating that everything burns under the right conditions and that an accident, particularly with a fuel tanker, could generate enough heat to burn concrete and steel containers and vaporise the waste. This would transform the waste into a form in which it presents the greatest risk to human health.
“Concrete burns, it spalls, it expands and it explodes. That is what happens to it if it is subject to fire for long enough. You can put it in concrete and you can have steel mesh holding the whole thing together, but when you apply heat, the granules grow and things start spalling, just throwing out bits of itself everywhere until, in the end, that concrete or the integrity of the structure that encases it is broken.
STAND UP TO NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP BULLIES
Kim Mavromatis No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia
 The Federal Liberal Govnt Nuclear Waste Dump Process is subjecting people to intimidation, insults, threats and bullying.The Federal Liberal Govnt process has been appalling and is feeding the bad behaviour of pro nuclear waste dump bullies. The Federal Liberal Govnt nuclear waste dump process has fractured the communities in the Flinders Ranges and Kimba regions (near the proposed nuclear waste dump sites) and has encouraged intimidation, insults, threats and bullying. Why on earth would the Federal Liberal govnt want to dump nuclear waste in the Flinders Ranges, on a floodplain, in a seismically active region, bordered by natural springs, in an iconic tourism destination, or on Eyre Peninsula farmland, near Kimba and next to Lake Gilles Conservation Park????? https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/ |
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Shire of Leonora deputy president says no thanks to foreign nuclear waste pitch
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Leonora was identified as a prime candidate in WA for a dumping site similar to a facility being built in Finland, where a 2km-deep tunnel would be drilled to store bentonite clay-sealed copper cylinders full of radioactive waste.Speaking on Channel 7’s Flashpoint on Monday night, Shire of Leonora deputy president Ross Norrie said he didn’t feel there was any amount of money that could convince residents to get onboard plans for a global nuclear waste dump.
“They are offering big bucks to store it, but I think Finland and Norway are way more advanced with their storage projects,” he said. “The feeling was, no, we are not going to accept nuclear waste from offshore and currently the policy is we don’t any way.” Leonora has been touted as a local nuclear waste storage site due to the proposed Azark Project at Clover Downs Station 15km out of town. Mr Norrie said the Shire was only interested in storing waste produced locally, such as at the proposed Yeelirrie uranium mine, and from Lucas Heights in NSW. “The storage facility we are talking about is one of the safest going,” he said. “We need to be around the table because we do have Australia’s largest deposit of uranium.” Australian Nuclear Association president Robert Parker said safety would not be a concern if a global waste storage was built in the Goldfields. When they drill down into the rock and they go down 500m they check that water hasn’t moved for millions of years,” he said. “If that water has not moved, and they can verify it hasn’t, then that (nuclear waste) is going down there and it is not coming back ever. “It is a certain, sure, engineered solution to the migration of these old bits of waste through the environment.” Former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said storing the world’s nuclear waste near Leonora would be disastrous. “The reason the industry asks for remote high isolation sites … is they know the engineered containment will leak,” he said. “How will you explain that to Aboriginal people or crew who live in these remote mining towns or remote communities that the reason you are trying to put it as far from centres of population as possible is that you know the stuff is going to leak.” Reform WA president Daniel Nikolic said economic benefits of nuclear waste storage were big. |
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South Australia – the nuclear wasteland state
South Australia – the wasteland state, SEBASTIAN TOPS, PORT LINCOLN TIMES OCTOBER 17 2019 South Australia’s Nuclear Citizens’ Jury had many researched reasons to say ‘no’ to another’s (nuclear) waste.“Have Your Say” on nuclear waste dump – just a window-dressing exercise by the Australian govt
Kazzi Jai No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 30 Oct 19, In today’s Transcontinental paper on page 4 there is a half page ad for “Have your Say on the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility”. It says…
In November and December 2019, the Australian Government will survey businesses and neighbours of the proposed sites to determine if they support hosting the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in their community. These surveys are in addition to the Flinders Ranges Council Community Ballot (Mon 11 November to Thurs 12 December 2019).
Also, anyone can make a submission by 12 December 2019 to radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au
It then says in bold letters at the bottom “Further information, including an ‘opt-in’ process for surveys, is available at www.radioactivewaste.gov.au/have-your-say”
But alas – it only goes to https://www.industry.gov.au/strategies-for-the-future/managing-radioactive-waste page……..
So….is there something sneaky going on here??
The presumptive flip side to that is therefore The Minister has already determined everyone else will NOT be detrimentally affected & so not worth greater effort. LMFAO https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
Australia’s secret hazardous radioactive military leftovers
Tim Bickmore No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia. 30 Oct 19, I wonder if the ‘National Maritime Collection’ is one of the DIIS 100+ sites?
The ARPANSA 2019 Annual Report states “… the engine from the Wessex has hazardous (radioactive) substances and poses a risk to staff”: & it is being removed – therefore the ‘(radioactive) substances’ would be headed for the national suppository.
What other (radioactive) military left-overs will DIIS release from hidden fields once the scapegoats have been herded?
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
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/
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/
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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of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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