Melbourne Vigil Against the Nuclear Waste Dump in the NT

Melbourne Radio-Active Vigil - NO WASTE DUMP IN THE N.T..

Anti-nuclear protestors locked to a one tonne barrel of “nuclear waste” for 35 hours this week, barricading the entrance to the Liberal Party Headquarters to highlight the Federal Government’s dangerous plans to impose a nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Related: www.votenuclearfree.net

The vigil was part of a National Day of Action expressing concern about the Coalition’s continued refusal to disclose its nuclear agenda to the Australian community ahead of the federal election, and received significant public support over the two day period.

“The Coalition government has failed to consult or convince the community over its plan for radioactive waste,” said Friends of the Earth (FoE) anti-nuclear campaigner Michaela Stubbs.

“Before the last election the Coalition promised the NT that nuclear waste would not be headed their way. They broke that promise, and now they are pushing ahead with an ‘out of sight – out of mind’ plan for a nuclear waste dump in the NT. They promised Australia that we would not become an international dumping ground for nuclear waste but have now signed us up to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership that would see Australia selling uranium across the globe and taking back the waste at the end of the toxic nuclear chain.”

The controversial radioactive waste dump plan is facing growing opposition in the NT and along the proposed transport routes. The process followed by the government in selecting sites for the national waste dump is unpopular and undemocratic. There has been no community consultation, and resistance and protest continues to be ignored by the Coalition government.

Despite Julie Bishop’s suggestion that proposed dump sites are ‘some distance from any form of civilisation’ (ABC Radio 30/01/2007), people, and in particular

Aboriginal communities, are located as close as four kilometres from the sites. None of these sites were short listed by a scientific study aimed at identifying a site for a national repository. One of the sites is located in an earthquake area – extremely dangerous when waste will be stored under ground, as is the Territory’s water supply.

“There is no agreed or credible long term solution for the management of radioactive waste”, said Claire McCall, from the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN). “The Coalition’s plan is a secretive and dangerous nuclear experiment that poses a long term risk to people and the environment.”

Police took two hours yesterday to cut community activists from the “nuclear waste” barrel, and the two people cut free were charged with obstructing a footpath and the entrance to the building.

For more information on the political parties’ stand on nuclear issues, see www.votenuclearfree.net.