FEDERAL Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said "g'day" to anti-nuclear waste demonstrators yesterday.

He went in through the front door of Darwin's Crocodylus Park but left through the workers' driveway.

The protesters were from the No Waste Alliance, which says Mr Ferguson "masterminded" the law forcing the waste dump on the Northern Territory.

Alliance member Justin Tutty said all environmental groups accepted that existing nuclear waste needed to be managed safely.