Aboriginal land likely to be nuke waste dump
Friday, 25 May, 2007
by Tara Ravens
The Sunday Telegraph
The Northern Land Council (NLC) today announced that a group of traditional owners at Muckaty Station, 120km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, had nominated their land for the planned repository, which will store low to medium level waste.
They will hand over 1.5sq km to store Australia's nuclear waste, which will probaby be carried there by by road on the Stuart Highway over the next 50 years.
The Commonwealth will hand back the site to the owners when it is declared safe, in about 200 years.
In return, the owners will get $11 million to be managed by a charitable trust and $1 million to be spent on education.
The land will undergo scientific testing and will be considered along with three commonwealth defence sites, including Harts Range and Mount Everard near Alice Springs and Fishers Ridge near Katherine.
Following a meeting of the NLC in North East Arnhem Land today, NLC chairman John Daly said said traditional owners had made the decision with the backing of the Aboriginal representative body.
"This is an agreement that has been worked out with traditional owners and the Commonwealth," he said.
"We believe it will be safe and we have Australia's best scientists dealing with it."
Mr Daly called the money a "cash cow" for the traditional owners, and said it was "very likely" the site would be picked.
"I'm really confident that it will be chosen. But that is up to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation," he said.
"Hopefully everything will stack up and the geology will be right for it... we aren't losing our land, it is a long-term lease and when the Commonwealth is finished with it it will be returned to Aboriginal lands again."
Ngapa traditional owner Amy Lauder, from the Muckaty region, said she was happy with the deal, which is opposed by the Northern Territory Government.
"We feel it will be all right for the environment in our country," she said.
"We will get it back later on and (the money) will make a big difference to us."
Federal Science Minister Julie Bishop said there was still a long way to go in the process.
"If I approve the nominated land as a potential site, then the suitability of the site will be assessed in a similar manner to the three defence sites that were announced in 2005.
"Then we will make a decision on a preferred site for the facility. The preferred site will then be subject to environmental impact assessment and nuclear regulatory licensing processes.
"But the facility is scheduled to commence operation by 2011."
Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett said the local Aboriginal community had not been properly consulted.
"Labor's not surprised but disappointed at this nomination given that there are a number of interested parties, traditional owners, in and around Muckaty Station who are opposed to this radioactive waste dump being located in and around their country, we understand," he said on ABC radio.
"Regrettably, the amendments that the Government passed to the radioactive waste management legislation in 2006 denied them any procedural rights or appeal rights.
"It's critical that the rights all interested parties including traditional owners are actually taken into account. We'd be very concerned if that wasn't the case here."