Don't waste the Territory - Dump the dump now, was the chant from the activists who had gathered outside Darwin's parliament house. 

A substantial knot of people including Traditional Owners, trade unionists, and environmentalists, had come together to express their views about the proposed siting of a radioactive waste facility at Muckaty Station, an hour's drive north of Tennant Creek.

The lunchtime protest was occasioned by the Darwin hearings of the Senate Committee inquiring into the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill. Although in theory an inquiry about process rather than policy, the committee's activities has become a flashpoint for those opposed to the proposed waste dump at Muckaty.

The air was thick with hostility towards the Northern Land Council (NLC), which has chosen not to make public either their agreement with the Commonwealth government on the waste dump, or the associated anthropological study. 

For its part, the NLC - whose representatives had earlier travelled to Canberra to give evidence to the Committee - continues to insist that the consultation process it undertook with the Muckaty mob was ridgy-didge.

Later in the afternoon, the formal hearings commenced inside Darwin's 'white house'. 

The NT Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, fronted the committee and appeared to take a certain pleasure in reminding senators that the boffins had apparently found a location in the ACT, which was very suitable for a nuclear waste repository. 

Hendo didn't make it completely clear, but we are sure he wasn't referring to the site of the federal parliament.

A packed house of interested onlookers applauded the evidence they liked in a most unparliamentary, but very human, manner. 

But there was also an air of sadness, as Traditional Owners who had travelled a great distance to sit in an alien environment were called upon to explain matters about their country that we sensed they may have preferred not to discuss. 

Aboriginal people are invariably on a hiding to nothing when they confront the majesty of whitefella justice. 

This hearing was no exception. Senators were courteous and understanding, but the tears and traumas that inevitably result from these cultural collisions were too much in evidence.

TT reckons that the solution to the whole drama might be for the federal government to go in and build the roads, houses and schools - which they would surely construct for 300 whitefellas living out in the bush - without asking the locals to trade away their birthright. 

Truth is, TT is a lot better informed about footy than about nuclear physics. But it is nevertheless apparent to us that, after the chants fade away and the committee members return to Canberra, a question remains unanswered.

If the stuff that they want to bury in the bush is as safe as they insist that it is, then why not keep it in Sydney? 

This would obviate the need to transport it thousands of kilometres across country, and would mean that, in the event of any problems, technical experts and infrastructure would be close at hand.