Monday, 4 June, 2007

by Samantha Maiden and Jeremy Roberts
The Australian

LIBERAL delegates have urged the Howard Government to set up a worldwide nuclear dump as Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane accused the states of hypocrisy, warning that one was keeping nuclear waste in a hospital car park.

The Liberal Party's federal council, on the last day of its three-day conference, yesterday urged the Government to consider establishing a nuclear dump for the world's waste in Australia.

The motion won the support of the Sydney conference's 68 delegates, but Mr Macfarlane said the Government was not about to upgrade plans for a low-level nuclear dump in the Northern Territory.

He instead attacked the Labor states for retaining ad hoc nuclear waste storage sites in capital cities. He said one hospital was keeping nuclear waste in a shipping container in a hospital car park.

South Australian Health Minister John Hill was forced to admit Royal Adelaide Hospital still kept nuclear waste in its basement, more than two years after the Rann Government blocked a federal plan to build a national dump in the state.

But West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter hit back, promising to pass laws to block any federal moves to set up a nuclear facility -- including any reactor -- in his state.

Mr Macfarlane suggested some states lacked a "secure environment" for nuclear waste. "Let me just ask all the states -- what are they doing with their nuclear waste right now ... because I know each state health system has nuclear waste."

The waste includes needles, surgical gowns and nuclear waste used in the treatment of cancer.

"Are they storing it as it's suggested, in one case, in a shipping container in the car park of their general hospital?"

A spokesperson for Mr Macfarlane denied the container was a public health risk, and declined toreveal which state used the container.

Mr Macfarlane accused the states of hypocrisy.

"Why are they frightening people by saying nuclear waste is so dangerous when they are not even storing it in a secure environment in some cases?" He also said nuclear power was one way to tackle climate change, echoing John Howard's support for nuclear power in any future national power generation regime.

Mr Carpenter said his planned legislation to block any federal nuclear push would include a referendum trigger so people would have their say if the federal Government ever tried to override the new state laws.

He said the referendum would ensure a huge political cost for the commonwealth if it tried to usurp the will of the state.

The legislation will also prohibit transporting materials to a nuclear facility site and stop nuclear power being connected to the electricity grid.

Mr Carpenter stopped short of banning uranium mining, but said it would not be allowed while he was Premier.