MUCKATY traditional owners were snubbed by Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and locked out of his electorate office when they attempted to hand-deliver a letter to him this week.

The owners are angry their land has been nominated as the site for a nuclear waste dump without consultation or consent.

Mark Lane, Dianne Stokes, Doris Kelly, Jeanie Sambo and Gladys Brown travelled to Melbourne to appeal to Minister Ferguson to put his plans on hold and to ask him to meet with all traditional owners at Muckaty.

The Minister has consistently rebuffed the traditional owners who say they do not want a nuclear dump on their land.

When they visited his Melbourne office on Monday, accompanied by several supporters, the door was locked.

So someone phoned and was told there was no way they intended to open the door.

Ms Stokes said it was the second time Minister Ferguson had spurned their attempts to talk to him.

“He’s rude and insulting,” she said.

“He won’t face us because he knows the truth - that is the whole process which saw Muckaty nominated as a nuclear waste dump site is corrupt.

“We are targetting Ferguson’s electorate of Batman so that his constituents know what he is up to.

“They should know he thinks he’s a big high and mighty man who doesn’t have to listen to people.

“When election day comes I hope he gets the message that we don’t need people like him in government.”

The traditional owners, who also visited Sydney, have launched a legal challenge against the Federal Government and the Northern Land Council about the nomination of Muckaty.

Martin Hyde from Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, said consultation with all traditional owners was imperative.

“When you’re going to put a nuclear waste dump on people’s land and it’s going to be there forever, there’s a legal obligation on the government to ask everybody for their consent and to make sure they’re informed about the pros and cons for having a waste dump on your land,” he said.

“A Northern Land Council anthropological report identified only one part of one traditional group as land owners.

“That flies in the face of what the Land Commissioner said after his extensive investigations and so far we haven’t seen this secret anthropological report.”

While in Melbourne, the traditional owners had the opportunity to see the billboard which dominates a building wall in the Batman electorate.

A photograph of group of traditional owners features a bold, red strip which reads: ‘He won’t listen to us but he answers to you. Tell Minister Ferguson to stop his plans for a radioactive waste dump in the NT.’