The Australian Greens today vowed to step up the campaign against the planned nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.

Greens spokesperson for nuclear issues, Senator Scott Ludlam, said Labor and the Coalition colluding to pass the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill in the Senate today was “just the beginning of the next phase in the campaign to stop this waste dump”.

“The locals don’t want it and the Northern Territory government does not want it. Traditional Owners visited the parliament and Dianne Stokes wept here in this very place telling the story of her country. There is a Federal Court case currently unresolved as to the status of this land, yet the Government pushes on - led by an energy and resources minister obsessed with the nuclear industry."

“This legislation does not just represent a problem for Muckaty – it places enormous and virtually unchecked power in the hands of one minister."

The Greens have pushed for the creation of a commission of experts to determine how best to deal with radioactive waste in Australia, rather than concentrating the decision making power into the hands of one minister.

The Greens fought the Bill for two years, and secured an amendment to the law to ensure no international nuclear waste is stored in Australia.

"Under our amendment no nuclear waste will be imported to Australia. Given some members of Parliament were actually proposing to advocate renting out space in Australia for the world's high-level radioactive waste, this is the only useful innovation in a rotten bill."

"We opposed it when it was a fundamentally flawed Bill, we will continue to oppose it now that it is a fundamentally flawed law. South Australia resisted a nuclear waste dump and won. So will the Territory.”