Soouth Australia’s Mike Rann gives freehold to BHP over Olympic Dam uranium mining lease
“They have a code of silence at that mining lease that’s stronger than any code in downtown
Calabria,” “They even have the government tied up because when BHP says jump, the government says how high.”
Yesterday, Rann again signed off on BHP’s powerful proprietary interests over the site. BHP gets freehold over the extended Olympic Dam mining lease. Few mining companies have this ultimate level of control.
The estimated mining royalties for South Australia ($350 million) from the “world’s biggest mine in human history” are around one tenth of what Western Australia pulls every year from iron ore.
Mike Rann delivers Kloppers’ Kingdom in Melbourne, Crikey, by Kevin Naughton of InDaily, 13 Oct 11,
“…….Rann was in Melbourne at BHP Billiton’s headquarters to sign the indenture agreement that specifies several of the terms under which BHP can expand its mine at Olympic Dam. Marius Kloppers, the busy global boss of the company with more than $72 billion turnover, held the whip hand on the Premier of a state with annual turnover of about $13 billion.
The indenture agreement goes before Parliament next week where there will be some token debate, but little in the way of exhaustive analysis of the terms of a deal that gives BHP 45 years of certainty, control and exclusive access rights that make this mine site look more like Kloppers’ Kingdom than a part of South Australia. Continue reading
Australia’s Lynas corporation accused of fraud – secrecy over radioactive waste disposal
Malaysian MP accuses Australian company of fraud, 702 ABC Sydney , 29 Sept 11, South East Asia correspondent A Malaysian MP has accused an Australian company of corporate fraud in relation to the building of an ore processing plant in Malaysia.
The Lynas Corp plant will process ore from Western Australia in Malaysia, extracting rare earth minerals for hi-tech manufacturing. The ore contains low levels of radiation, but the Australian company says its plant will be safe.
But Malaysian MP Fuziah Salleh has lodged an official complaint with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). In a letter to ASIC, she says the company promised the International Atomic Energy Agency it would intensify consultation.
She says the company’s failure to publicly release a waste disposal plan amounts to corporate fraud…..The plant is expected to be complete by the end of the year..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-29/malaysian-mp-accuses-australian-company-of-fraud/3034900/?site=sydney
Call to sack Australia’s Resources Minister, over his deceitful handling of nuclear waste issue
Dr Jim Green said: “Mr Ferguson’s handling of this dump issue has been misleading,
undemocratic, secretive and in violation of binding Labor Party platform policy. He is treating South Australians with contempt. Prime Minister Gillard should sort out this mess by replacing Mr Ferguson with someone better suited to the task of managing a difficult and contentious issue.”
MARTIN FERGUSON MISLEADS SA ON NUCLEAR DUMP, 28 September 2011, Federal resources minister Martin Ferguson’s mishandling of the contentious plan to truck nuclear waste through SA to a dump site in the NT reached a new low with his misleading comments on ABC Riverland radio this morning.
Mr Ferguson claimed that no decision had been made on a dump site. However he is pushing the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (NRWMB) through Parliament. The Bill targets Muckaty in the NT as the only site under active consideration for a dump site despite the fact that MuckatyTraditional Owners are challenging the nomination in the Federal Court, and despite NT legislation banning the imposition of a nuclear dump. Continue reading
South Australian government secrecy on expansion of BHP’s Olympic Damn
Release ‘secret’ Roxby report, 22 Sept 11, The Greens have called for the immediate release of a hidden report that captures the views of State Government agencies on the Olympic Dam
Mega-expansion.
Called the ‘Assessment Report’, it is a compulsory step in the approval process for a major development. It summarises the responses by various government agencies to the proponent’s Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and is supposed to be released before the Government announces its approval of a project. However, for recent controversial projects the Rann Government has chosen to only release the Report after they have announced their decision. “The only reason the Government is choosing not to release the Assessment Report now is to avoid scrutiny,” said SA Greens Parliamentary leader Mark
Parnell.
“The Government is holding back the Report’s release for political reasons – keeping the SA community in the dark. This means that the public doesn’t get a chance to respond. It also allows the Government to dodge tricky questions as the media and others tend to focus on the approval decision, rather than what Government agencies actually think.
“The Rann Government has form in releasing the Assessment Report only after they announce their decision on a project. They did it for Buckland Park and they did it for the Port Stanvac desal plant. “For a project as important as the Olympic Dam expansion, the Government should be giving the SA community more opportunities to be involved in the
final decision, not less. “For example, the Assessment Report will be able to tell us what
Government agencies like SARDI really think about the proposed desalination plant at Pt Lowly.
“The Greens call on the State Government to immediately release the Assessment Report, well before they announce their decision on the OlympicDam Expansion.
South Australia: Labor and Liberal keep uranium mine information from the public
Last night, Labor and Liberal combined to defeat a Greens motion calling on the release of more information from the world’s richest resource company to justify BHPB’s preferred option to send Roxby ore to China for processing.
Labor & Liberal roll over on Roxby ‘China Option’, 15 Sept 11, South Australian Greens Parliamentary Leader Mark Parnell has accused the SA Labor Government and Liberal Opposition of abandoning domestic processing for the Olympic Dam expansion. Continue reading
Toro Energy uranium company notorious for peddling lies
The Battle to Keep WA Uranium Free, New Matilda.com By Jim Green and Mia Pepper, 13 Sept 11, “…..Toro is notorious for peddling junk science. As nuclear radiologist Peter Karamoskoswrote in The Age earlier this year:
“There seems to be a never-ending cabal of paid industry scientific ‘consultants’ who are more than willing to state the fringe view that low doses of ionising radiation do not cause cancer and, indeed, that low doses are actually good for you and lessen the incidence of cancer. Canadian Dr Doug Boreham has been on numerous sponsored tours of Australia by Toro Energy, a junior uranium explorer, expounding the view that ‘low-dose radiation is like getting a suntan’. Toro must have liked what it heard because it made him a safety consultant for the company in 2009.”
As Karamoskos goes on to note, Toro’s claims do not stand up to scrutiny: Continue reading
Muckaty radioactive waste dump not necessary for nuclear medicine
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DISPUTE CANBERRA’S NUCLEAR DUMP CLAIMS , 12 sept 11, The Public Health Association of Australia and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War are tonight hosting a special forum at Charles Darwin University to address Canberra’s plan for a radioactive waste storage and disposal facility in the NT. Topics will include refuting the Federal Government’s claims about the connection between nuclear medicine and the proposed waste facility.
The forum is timely with the federal Senate scheduled to debate the highly-controversial National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (NRWMB) this week, and with the Federal Court scheduled to hear a legal challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site next month. Medical groups have previously written to Federal Senators calling on them to reject the NRWMB (online at <http://tiny.cc/2c7z0>). Continue reading
Australia plotted with USA against atomic energy chief – Wikileaks
US, Australia ‘schemed against IAEA chief’, SBS World News, 31 August 2011 Source: AAP, The United States and Australia schemed unsuccessfully in 2005 to block Mohamed ElBaradei’s election to a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a newly leaked US diplomatic cable shows.
Both countries were unhappy with ElBaradei’s “unhelpful” response to Iran’s nuclear program, but the bid to prevent his re-election to the nuclear regulatory agency’s leadership ultimately failed for lack of international support.The February 18, 2005 State Department cable released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday opens a window into the effort, describing a lunch conversation between Australian officials and a US special envoy for nuclear non-proliferation, Jackie Sanders.
The cable spotlights US and Australian concerns over the Egyptian diplomat’s interpretation that Iran had a “right” to civilian nuclear power, and his reluctance to declare Iran in non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Australian officials said there weren’t the 12 votes on the IAEA board of governors needed to deny ElBaradei re-election, “but that did not stop them from speculating on ways to try to prevent his re-election,” said the cable.
John Carlson, then head of Australia’s nuclear safeguards agency and one of the officials at the lunch, said Canberra strongly supported limiting IAEA chiefs to two terms, according to the cable…… The cable also included an informal document forwarded by Carlson, who had not yet cleared it with his government, entitled The case against ElBaradei….
Landscape Guardians – anything to stop action on Climate Change
I had the interesting experience of sitting through a recent Landscape Guardians meeting, with a panel of their “experts” including Randall Bell, in the small community of Barunah Park, west of Geelong.
“Any weapon” is what they use, and FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) tactics are their specialty…..the Guardians are part of the murky network of climate deniers, fossil fuel lobbyists, and hard-right Liberal party types. Their president has acknowledged they are waging a political battle against environmentalists.
Anti-wind power lobby: Farming fear, uncertainty and doubt, Green Left Weekly, July 30, 2011 , By Ben Courtice, The ABC’s Four Corners on July 25 showcased the national debate around wind farms’ alleged negative health effects.
It patiently allowed the anti-wind power Waubra Foundation to walk the audience through their case that wind farms are a health hazard. Many people I have met are curious to know if there is any truth to the allegations. Continue reading
Waubra Foundation – Australia’s secretive front group for polluting industries
The trick with astroturfers is to create a large number of so-called community groups to gain disproportionate media attention. Further investigation often finds these to be “phantom” organisations of just one person with often the same person representing multiple groups.
At the mere sniff of a proposed wind farm, media releases go out from “local”
Landscape Guardian groups. Paid advertisements call for public meetings. At these, the forces behind the climate sceptic movement in Australia, such as the Institute of Public Affairs’ Australian Environment Foundation, call on the by now familiar list of Guardians and its plentiful supporters amongst the Lavoisier Group, the Liberal Party and other sceptic groups to be bussed in. With the emphasis on silencing any pro-wind supporters at a meeting….
The ugly Landscape of the Guardians, Independent Australia, Sandi Keane, 24 July 11, “……..Wind Turbine Syndrome, according to the Waubra Foundation. Symptoms claimed include sleep problems, headaches, dizziness, nausea, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, irritability, depression, tinnitus, concentration problems – and a new one – children refusing to go to school! Continue reading
ANSTO’s all too cosy relationship with its nuclear regulator
Nuclear regulator ‘too close’ to ANSTO, ABC News 7 July 11, A review of Australia’s nuclear industry regulator, ARPANSA, has found an improper relationship with the main agency it monitors.
The Health Department’s audit and fraud control branch has been investigating how ARPANSA handled allegations of safety breaches and bullying at the nation’s only nuclear reactor in Sydney.
Whistleblowers had alleged ARPANSA was too close to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which runs the Lucas Heights research facility.
The whistleblowers claimed that safety reports were being compromised.
The Health Department review also questioned ARPANSA’s impartiality.
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam told ABC1’s Lateline the review vindicates the whistleblowers.
“The whistleblowers were right and the people who have been raising concerns about practices with these hazardous materials were right to raise their concerns,” he said. “It also tells us the regulator and the regulated were too close.”
The Federal Government is now reviewing ARPANSA’s regulatory powers, with Thursday’s report recommending they be strengthened if necessary.
IAEA report on safety of Lynas rare earths will be slanted in favour of the company
“How can we monitor daily? The risks of human error are too high,” she said, pointing out that the half-life of thorium was 14 billion years…..Fuziah promised that if the report from the panel, which includes members of the IAEA, was as she anticipated, she will continue to bring the issue to a higher level and exert pressure on authorities.
No confidence in Lynas safety review’, Free Malaysia Today Tashny Sukumaran, June 20, 2011, The IAEA report on the Lynas Corp is bound to be slanted and the human factor will not be taken into account, says Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh. KUALA LUMPUR: Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh is already second guessing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) report on the Lynas Corp’s rare earth refinery in Gebeng, Pahang.
She said she has no confidence in the independent panel’s safety review of the RM300 million Lynas Corp rare earth refinery . “I can imagine the outcome will contain acknowledgement of safety concerns, but also on how this refinery can be made safe,” said Fuziah. Continue reading
Big Tobacco shows the way for Australia’s Coal and Nuclear Lobbies
Australia’s Institute of Public Affairs does a fine job of fronting for the “Free Market No Regulation” philosophy of big corporations. Tobacco, for example, as THE AGE reports today.
You might wonder “Who cares, if Australia puts cigarette packets into plain colours?” Well, Big Tobacco cares. They devoted most of their recent international convention in Uruguay to Australia’s proposed new law on cigarette packaging. Not that they care too much about Australia’s relatively tiny market. It’s just that they know that this law would be effective in lessening the attraction of kids towards cigarettes – and heck, China or India might notice, and follow Australia’s lead.
As the Age reports, the Alliance of Australian Retailers, The Civic Group, and the IPA all front for the Tobacco Industry. And it’s good practice for the fossil fuel and nuclear industries to follow suit. – Christina Macpherson
Former Turnbull adviser heads tobacco laws fight, THE AGE, Melissa Fyfe, 5 June 11 A FORMER Liberal staff member and adviser to Malcolm Turnbull is spearheading a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to help the tobacco industry fight the federal government’s plain packaging reforms Continue reading
ERA’s hidden agenda for expanding Ranger uranium mine
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) spokesman Dave Sweeney says ERA has its eyes on a bigger prize than just expanding its existing Ranger Uranium Mine operations.
“It wants to stay active and in the region and wear people down, and wait for times to change,” he said….
A new report prepared for the Federal Government shows climate change could damage mine infrastructure and pose challenges to its processing systems over the next 60 years.
Mr Sweeney says Ranger Uranium Mine’s location within the boundaries of Kakadu National Park makes it too risky to expand.
Critics turn up heat on uranium miner – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), By Lucy McNally, Jano Gibson and Rick Hind Jun 3, 2011 Environmental groups are warning Territorians to pay attention to a plan by Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) to expand its uranium mine in Kakadu National Park.
They say they believe the ultimate goal of the company is still to mine Jabiluka. Continue reading
Lynas rare earths company downplays toxicity of thorium wastes
doubts on the thorium content as claimed by Lynas, saying that claims that rare earth ore imported from Australia had a low thorium content were a way to downplay its significance.
Toxicologist T. Jayabalan agreed, saying supporters of the Malaysian project were using the term ‘low-level radiation’ in an attempt to allay fears, but the fact remains that it’s still a form of radiation and it is carcinogenic.
A Battle for Rare Earths – The Diplomat, 2 June 11“……One issue, however, has emerged that will test that goodwill with Australia. The battle is over rare earths, the toxic by-products it produces and the Malaysian home one Australian company would like to find for it…..
But the neighbours aren’t happy, Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 