The Nightcliff Uniting Church, a community of Christians from across the Darwin area today called on the Australian government to listen to the views of all Australians when making a decision regarding the proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.

“Unless our government hears the views of all Australians with regard to the future of Muckaty Station, any decision it makes will be illegitimate and morally indefensible,” said Rev. Paul Turley, minister of the Nightcliff Uniting Church.

“We at the Nightcliff Uniting Church have met with traditional owners of Muckaty Station and other concerned residents of the Barkly Region and they tell us that their repeated attempts to put their views regarding the future of Muckaty Station to Martin Ferguson,  Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism, have consistently been rebuffed.”

“This is not good enough. We elect governments to make decisions but in doing so we require them to take account of the views of all Australians not simply those who tell them what they want to hear.”

“It is wrong when governments do not listen to the views of all Australians. When the views of indigenous residents of the Northern Territory, who have been sidelined and misrepresented for short-term political gain for generations, are ignored it is a travesty.”

“We call on our government to abandon their attempt to ram through their nuclear waste dump legislation and to go back first to the people of the Barkly Region and then the rest of the nation and undertake careful, thoughtful, and extensive consultation so that the difficult decisions about the future of nuclear waste can be decisions we call all live with.”