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Australian Greens take Aboriginals’ anti nuclear cause to Parliament

“We are the Aboriginal people who own the land and the dreamings you are talking about, we are asking that you reject this bill and scrap Muckaty as a site for the waste dump.”

Greens urge rethink of nuclear dump site – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), By Megan Lewis Sep 29, 2010 The Greens have urged the Federal Government to scrap plans to build a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory……

During a speech to Parliament today, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the minority make-up of the Government was the perfect time to renegotiate the location of the repository.

Senator Ludlam says it is sad that some traditional owners have had to go to the Federal Court to fight the dump being forced upon them.

“Ironically enough, people who do have experience of this land over generations and through what we would define as different geological ages, the traditional owners of the site in question up at Muckaty do not support this proposal,” he said.

“There is no community consent or a community license to take this material and dump it at Muckaty.”

Senator Ludlam said it could take 300 years for radioactive waste to break down and a site should be selected based on science.

“A period during which language will change, cultures will change, the climate will change, the coastlines will change … that is the period for how long we need to consider the management and safe isolation of these very, very long-lived toxic materials,” he said.

The Government is negotiating with traditional owners who claim to own the site, but Senator Ludlam says five other clan groups do not want the waste dump to go ahead.

He read a letter from traditional owners to Parliament, asking the Government to scrap its plans.

“There is a bill that will soon come before this Parliament – the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill – it will target our land for the waste dump,” Senator Ludlam read.

“We are the Aboriginal people who own the land and the dreamings you are talking about, we are asking that you reject this bill and scrap Muckaty as a site for the waste dump.” Greens urge rethink of nuclear dump site – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

September 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, politics | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium