The Australian Greens say draft laws which will allow a nuclear waste dump to be created on a property in the Northern Territory are "radioactive racism".

As the traditional owners of Muckaty Station and their supporters rallied outside Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday, Greens senator Rachel Siewert was telling the upper house their land should not turned into a waste dump.

"The people of Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek, continue to be targeted and specifically named," she said.

It was "a shameful indictment" of the government's handling of Aboriginal people's rights.

"There's no doubt in my mind that what we are practising here is radioactive racism."

Some of the station's traditional owners oppose the dump, while the Northern Land Council is in favour of it.

The federal court is yet to rule on which Aboriginal groups are the rightful custodians of Muckaty Station.

The Greens say debate on the bill should not proceed until the land tenure issues are resolved.

Traditional owner Dianne Stokes represented the traditional elders of the Warlmanpa and Warumungu tribes at the rally.

"The Senate will be going ahead debating the legislation without proper consultation and without our consent," she said.

"They have not come to sit with the rightful traditional owners."

About 100 people gathered outside Parliament House to make known their opposition to the waste dump plan.

Another traditional owner, Kylie Sambo, told them of the link her people had with the land at Muckaty.

"We don't want this poison in our land because our land means a lot to us," she said.

Anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott said that the dump may lead to Australia becoming a waste dump for the rest of the world.

Dr Caldicott labelled Resources Minister Martin Ferguson as "an arrogant little fool" for allowing this to happen.

Greens MP Adam Bandt questioned why the dump was being located at Muckaty. "If it is so attractive then why isn't Martin Ferguson prepared enough to have it in his own electorate (in inner Melbourne)?"

Senator Siewert made a similar point to the upper house, criticising the government's depiction of the benefits for Aboriginal owners of the land.

"If you tried to dump this in one of the green leafy suburbs so that people could get decent housing, decent employment and decent health, what do you think the response would be?"