Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add some comments in relation to this committee report as well. Of course, the Australian Greens have had a very proud and long history raising serious concerns about how successive federal governments have intended to impose a national nuclear waste dump on various communities. Let me be absolutely clear: it seems that time and time again the Commonwealth continues to try and put these dumps in areas where there is strong community opposition, particularly from First Australians, with a hope—perhaps a naive hope—that, because it's in the outback, it's out of sight, out of mind. The views of those Aboriginal communities are not as important as, indeed, if the debate were being held about whether the dump was going into the northern, western, eastern or southern suburbs of a capital city.

As a South Australian, I'm extremely concerned about the impact of having a national nuclear waste dump in South Australia, and, particularly when the government has not been up-front with the community about the impact that this dump will have, the type of waste that this dump will hold. For a long time the federal government refused to accept, acknowledge or be honest about the fact that intermediate waste would be stored in these facilities—we now know that is well and truly the case—and even then, despite that, not stored properly. It is temporary storage, which begs the question: where will it go after that? It seems ludicrous to go through this whole process only to be storing intermediate level waste in an inappropriate manner for what is deemed to be 'temporary'. Let's be clear about what 'temporary' means. The minister himself, on ABC Radio in South Australia some weeks ago, said that 'temporary' meant 100 years. For 100 years the outback in South Australia—the Flinders Ranges—could be hosting intermediate level waste above ground. This is just a dangerous and ludicrous proposition.

South Australia has a proud history of beautiful ecotourism and celebrating its outback environment. The idea that we would turn the Flinders Ranges of all places into a nuclear waste dump is just gobsmacking. South Australians won't accept it. We don't like it, we're not going to accept it and we will fight it all the way. This report as tabled by the committee and the dissenting report tabled by me representing the Greens make it very clear that the fight over this location of a nuclear waste dump is far from over.

We know the communities in both Hawker and Kimba have been torn apart by this process. They are hurting. They feel manipulated. They feel undermined. They've had neighbour turn against neighbour in relation to this issue. It has been the absolute opposite of generating community consensus. This issue and the way it has been managed by the federal government—the dishonesty, the mismanagement and the heavy-handedness—have torn families apart. The local traditional owners in both Kimba and Hawker are strongly opposed to having a nuclear waste dump. In fact, when I was out in Hawker some weeks ago visiting locals there, talking to local business owners, tourism operators and members of the Aboriginal communities, it was quite clear how concerned people are. I was shocked to learn that one of the locations where the government wants to put a nuclear waste dump in the Flinders Ranges is on a secret women's site. What is even more horrifying is that, of course, the land that has been nominated is part-owned by former Liberal Senator Grant Chapman. He's put up his property for an option to host the dump. There was no consultation with his neighbours.

This hosting of a nuclear waste dump on a sacred women's site in the Flinders Ranges is just abhorrent. I must say it has echoes of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge saga. Of course, it was the same family—the Chapman family in South Australia—who pushed for the creation of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge despite it impacting on a sacred women's site. Fast-forward, and all of these years later we have culturally significant land in the Flinders Ranges, important to the local Indigenous population—particularly women—now being handed up as the place to put radioactive waste. No wonder this is causing extreme angst in the Hawker community.

This is not to mention the impact that it is going to have on the local tourism in that area. The Flinders Ranges are beautiful. It is an untouched wilderness. People come from all over the world to see the Flinders Ranges and to spend time there. It's something that South Australians are extremely proud of. And yet this government wants to turn it into a radioactive waste dump.

The other location that has been flagged in South Australia, of course, is Kimba, smack bang in the middle of prime agricultural land. South Australia has a green, clean grain reputation. The idea of putting a nuclear waste dump—radioactive waste—in the middle of where we export our grain from is a slap in the face to the industry in South Australia and to the communities who rely on it. Again, there is no community consensus and no social licence. There is just heavy-handedness from this government.

The Greens will fight this all the way from the federal perspective and from the state perspective, because we don't want this radioactive waste dumped in the Flinders Ranges. We don't want it dumped on our prime agricultural land. We certainly don't want the ports of Port Pirie, Whyalla and Port Lincoln turned into highways of ships full of radioactive waste. It has now been admitted by this government that this will happen if these dumps are created.

These ports and these port communities in our state have every right to have their say on this issue too, and yet they've been locked out of the process, kept in the dark and told that everything will be A-OK and doesn't affect them. It is simply abhorrent that the South Australian community is being treated like this. We have fought, as a South Australian community, a national waste dump in our backyard before and we won, and we will do it again. Make no mistake, this fight has only just started.