Dumping on owners
Jim Green
The Age, letters
YESTERDAY the Labor-Liberal majority on a Senate committee released a report endorsing the national radioactive waste management bill - the most draconian and undemocratic piece of legislation seen in years. The legislation overrides the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1984, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and any laws that could impede the nuclear dump plans of federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.
The legislation is built on the fiction that traditional owners of the Muckaty region of the Northern Territory support the proposed nuclear dump.
But many traditional owners are on the public record opposing the dump. Ferguson argues his case on the basis of an anthropological report he refuses to publicly release or even share with affected traditional owners.
The nuclear dump proposal will be subject to a legal challenge and is the focus of a growing national fight. As Muckaty traditional owner Dianne Stokes says: "Martin Ferguson has avoided us and ignored our letters but he knows very well how we feel. He has been arrogant and secretive and he thinks he has gotten away with his plan but in fact he has a big fight on his hands."