Thursday, 18 October, 2007

by Julia Christensen
ABC 8DDD FM

REPORTER:   JULIA CHRISTENSEN
INTERVIEWEE:      DAMIEN HALE

You might have had an interesting leaflet through your letterbox suggesting that a vote for the Coalition in the election could be a vote for a nuclear reactor at East Point.  Yes, you heard right.  That's a pretty extraordinary
claim by Solomon Labor candidate Damien Hale.  Have you seen the brochure yourself yet? They're warning that Dave Tollner and John Howard want to build nuclear reactors in the Territory but they won't say where.  And just so we know what he means Damien Hale has got a picture of a family enjoying what looks to be an East Point sunset barbecue with a series of nuclear cooling stacks on the horizon.

REPTR Damien Hale good morning.

HALE  Good morning Julia, how are you?

REPTR Good, looks like East Point, was it meant to be?

HALE  Oh no I think it was just, you know, the picture's there to make people aware of what's going on, on this issue.

REPTR Where's your evidence to support the claim that Dave Tollner wants to build a nuclear reactor in the Territory?

HALE  Well Dave has said all along that he's a supporter of nuclear power plants and so is the Prime Minister and they do have on the table that there will be 25 nuclear power plants built.  So what I'm actually saying is - Dave come clean, has Darwin, Palmerston, Moulden, Milner, Malak, have any of these areas or East Point been, you know, is there a chance of a nuclear power plant being there.

REPTR But all the experts have said it would be a most unlikely site in the Territory, we're too far from anything, isn't it being a little patronising perhaps to voters?

HALE  Oh no I don't think so, I think it's something that needs to be thrashed out before the election.  I think Dave needs to come out and categorically, and tell the people of Palmerston and Darwin that we won't be having a nuclear power plant built in our neighbourhoods.

REPTR But under the Territory Labor Government we could have a uranium processing plant on Darwin Harbour, Arafura Resources who are mining for uranium in Central Australia have announced this week a $380 million processing plant potentially for Middle Arm.

HALE  Yeah these are two different issues, the issue being that you know processing plant's a lot different to a nuclear power plant.  So they're two separate issues.

REPTR What's the difference?

HALE  Well the difference is in the high grade, you know, in a nuclear power plant the potential for highly toxic nuclear waste is far greater than in a processing plant.  So they're two separate issues Julia.  And what we've come out with, the Labor Party, we've said no to nuclear power.  Kevin Rudd and Labor's plan, you know, for climate change is to ratify Kyoto, undercut greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2050, to invest $500 million in clean coal technology.  And all I'm saying is Dave Tollner come out and tell the people of Darwin and Palmerston are we going to have a nuclear power plant.  It's a simple question.

REPTR But isn't that a mixed message to voters on your support for nuclear, I mean you're happy to have us involved in the next step up of the uranium industry with a nuclear processing plant potentially in Middle Arm, but you're sort of potentially scaremongering with regards to a nuclear reactor.

HALE  As I said Julia, they're two separate issues on the way that the nuclear or the uranium's treated at a processing plant against a nuclear power station. All I'm saying to Dave Tollner, and let's remember in 2004 Dave said that there'd be no nuclear, ah no waste dump sorry in the Northern Territory. Alright now he did a back flip on that.  I want him to come out and say, categorically say to the people of Palmerston and Darwin, look there'll be no nuclear power plant, that's all he's got to say.

REPTR But with this processing plant there'll be 150 tonnes of uranium transported up from the centre, 1500km's, isn't that something that Territory Labor wouldn't support?  How can you have it both ways?

HALE  Well that's a separate issue Julia.  The issue of that is yellowcake versus highly toxic nuclear waste coming out of a nuclear power plant. And all I'm saying is that Dave, come clean with the electorate.  If people don't want to have a nuclear power plant well they vote for Damien Hale and Labor.

REPTR Damien Hale there was a massive protest rally against local government amalgamations in Darwin yesterday, Kevin Rudd has entered the debate saying he would support plebiscites on amalgamations in the Territory and has suggested the Territory Government should slow down.  Do you agree?

HALE  Yes I do agree.  And, you know, I think that Kevin's come out and said that, you know, we support plebiscites, we support councils to be able to make decisions and to slow that process down a little bit.

REPTR So do you think the Territory Government's got it wrong?

HALE  Well I just think that there needs to be further consultation, you know, and I think that the more you go through in this game Julia, the more you find that, you know, consultation and communication are probably the two things that set up, you know, whether an issue goes through well or whether people aren't happy about it.

REPTR Damien Hale thanks for your time.

HALE  Thanks a lot Julia.

REPTR Damien Hale the Labor candidate for the Solomon, breaking ranks there basically with Territory Labor.

... 

REPTR Dave Tollner is the Federal CLP candidate and sitting member, Dave Tollner good morning.

TOLLNER     Good morning Julia, great to be with you.

REPTR Have you ever said you'll push for a nuclear reactor at East Point?

TOLLNER     Well I find that, I find that an insult to everybody's intelligence Julia.  And I saw that flier yesterday and I thought these people are just kidding themselves, they're kidding Territorians.  It's absolutely ridiculous.

REPTR But you and the Prime Minister have said there will be nuclear reactors eventually.  Is there any guarantee they won't be in the Territory?

TOLLNER     Well Julia the Northern Territory's total transmission system is around 250 megawatts of power.  Now nuclear reactors typically produce something around a thousand megawatts of electricity.  It is a long long time before the Territory will be ever ready for that sort of power load to be put here, I mean it's just ridiculous to suggest that somebody's gonna put a nuclear reactor in Malak or East Point, I mean, you know, it's an insult to everybody's intelligence.

REPTR But there have been CLP suggestions of a super power transmission line from Queensland to the Territory, why not process it, why not create it here and send it interstate?

TOLLNER     Well the fact is that proposal hasn't got up as yet and it's something that's opposed by the current Territory Labor Government.  And of course if you've got no way of getting it interstate onto the national grid, what's the point of having it.

REPTR Dave Tollner you I think committed formally for the first time yesterday to funding plebiscites on local government amalgamation.  Are you pleased to hear Damien Hale breaking ranks with Clare Martin over this?

TOLLNER     Well look one thing people need to realise is that Labor in the Territory and Labor federally are the same organisation, they are no different. And whilst, you know, these people, Kevin Rudd can run around and say that he supports plebiscites, he hasn't committed to supporting a plebiscite, he hasn't committed to actually holding a plebiscite, now John Howard and the Coalition has.  And you know until these guys stand up and say they're going to fully fund a plebiscite if they're elected, well you can't really believe them.  I mean, you know, what are they gonna do?  Steamroll Clare?  You've got to be joking; they're all the same stripe.

REPTR Dave Tollner thanks for your time.

TOLLNER     My pleasure Julia.

REPTR Federal CLP candidate and sitting member for Solomon Dave Tollner. Kezia Purick from the Minerals Council has called on the flier that Damien Hale has put out.  Kezia Purick good morning.

PURICK      Oh good morning Julia, and I wouldn't call it ridiculous, I'd call it ludicrous.  Now anyone that knows anything, and I presume there's someone in the ALP party that does know this, there is no smoke that comes out of stacks of a nuclear power plant.  Now that photo is just plain inaccurate and wrong.  And I'd like to offer to Mr Hale a briefing from the Minerals Council in regards to the uranium industry and the nuclear industry if and when Australia ever gets one.  And I just did hear the comments from Mr Tollner regards to the power loads, and that's quite correct, it's just scaremongering and it just shouldn't be accepted by the electorate as a whole.  I mean the uranium industry and the nuclear industry for that matter has come a long way in the last 50 years and none more so than in the Northern Territory and we do have a very good track record here in regards to uranium mining.  I mean nuclear energy; it is a debate that is yet to happen, and even his ALP colleague Mr Martin Ferguson has said that publicly, it's a debate that's yet to happen.  And there won't be nuclear power plants in the Northern Territory, not in our lifetime and not in yours and not in anyone that's voting at this next election.  And I offer my briefing to Mr Hale and any other of his colleagues in regards to the industry.

REPTR So you reckon it's a bit of creative photo shopping going on there?

PURICK      Absolutely it's creative photo shopping.  I mean anyone that's ever seen any pictures of a nuclear power plant, whether it be on the media or news or magazines or journals, they just do not pump out billows of smoke like they've got in that flier.

REPTR Kezia thanks for the call.

PURICK      My pleasure.

ENDS.