COMMONWEALTH RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT BILL 2005

Second Reading Senator NASH (New South Wales) (12.45 pm)— The incorporated speech read as follows— I am pleased to speak to the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2005 and the Common-wealth Radioactive Waste Management (Related Amendment) Bill 2005 Since the days of the Hawke Labor Government successive Australian governments have sought to put in place responsible arrangements for the management of this nation’s low and intermediate radioactive wastes. Despite best efforts they have been defeated by the NIMBY (Not in my back yard) attitudes of State and Territory Governments. The very same State and Territory Governments who agree that there is a need for radioactive waste management facilities in Australia - as long as they are “not in their backyard”. The myopic views of these State and Territory Governments forced this Government - a Government that was willing to work with the States and Territories - to consider other options for the management of low and intermediate level radioactive waste produced by Australian Government agencies. There would be few in this place that would not be aware that three Department of Defence sites owned by the Commonwealth in the Northern Territory were identified by this Government for further consideration as prospective waste sites. · a site called Fishers Ridge, about 43 kilometres southeast of Katherine. · another site near Harts Range, 100 kilometres directly northeast of Alice Springs, and · a third site at Mt Everard, about 27 kilometres directly northwest of Alice Springs. It is clearly evident that the radioactive waste management facility site will go somewhere in the Northern Territory - despite the NIMBY scare campaign that was mounted by the Martin Territory Labor Government. A campaign that was discredited during the last senate estimates process as a campaign that was not only misleading, but just plain wrong! Senators may recall that officials from the Department of Education Science and Training told the Employ-ment Workplace Relations and Education Estimates committee —a committee which included Senator Crossin, that the NT Government’s publication “What you need to know about Canberra’s Proposed Nuclear Waste Dump” which was promoted on the NT Government’s website, was incorrect and misleading. DEST officials said statements in the flyer, which claimed the nuclear waste to be stored at the facility “poses a serious danger to humans and the environment for many thousands of years’; were completely un-true. The same officials told the committee that communities residing near a radioactive waste management facil-ity were in no way at risk of “a range of terminal and debilitating medical conditions” as implied in the NT Government publication. Now my good friend from the Northern Territory’s Country Liberal Party and coalition colleague, Senator Scullion and his CLP colleague in the other place, the member for Solomon did the right thing, because they recognised that the radioactive waste management facility was destined for the Northern Territory. They worked within the Howard-Vaile government to secure the best outcome for Territorians. They were successful in having the legislation amended to give Land Councils and the NT Labor government greater involvement in nominating a suitable site. This means that this Government’s radioactive waste management facility could well go to a site, other than a Defence site, where somebody actually wants it, rather than to a site where somebody doesn’t want it. Senator Scullion and the Member for Solomon did the right thing! Unlike the Martin Territory Labor Government, Senator Scullion and the member for Solomon knew they couldn’t walk away just because the Territory Labor Government said they should. Senator Scullion and the Member for Solomon knew the Territory was going to get a radioactive waste man-agement facility - it was a fact - so they went about to make sure that the Territory was going to get the best, the safest, the cleanest and the greenest low and intermediate radioactive waste management facility in the entire world. Without a suitable radioactive waste management facility in this country no Australian could reasonably expect to receive the benefits of nuclear-sourced radioisotopes. Why, because where would we dispose of them? On average throughout life, every single one of us – not just in this place, but right across the nation, will benefit from a medical procedure to either diagnose or treat a cancer or other disease using a radio-pharmaceutical sourced from Australia’s only nuclear reactor at some time or other. Every year around 400,000 Australians undergo medical procedures that use the isotopes produced by Aus-tralia’s only nuclear reactor, saving lives every day. There are also a host of applications of radioactive materials that we rely upon in areas as diverse as sterilisa-tion of bandages, syringes and women’s hygiene products, minerals exploration and processing, ensuring the safety of oil and gas pipelines and the accurate filling of bottles and cans containing food and beverages. If we are to ensure that these medical and industrial procedures and products are available in the future, we must as a nation provide the facilities needed to manage the small quantity of radioactive waste that arise in their production and use. Government senators recognise that passage of the bill is essential if Australians are to continue to realise the benefits of the wide range of uses of radioactive materials in our daily lives. Let us not forget that successful passage of this Bill is also necessary for the Commonwealth to fulfil its re-sponsibilities under international conventions for the safe and secure management of radioactive waste. These include our obligations under the Joint Convention for the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. I remind the Senate that Australia is obliged to take back its radioactive waste currently stored in Scotland and France. Now those opposite say the Bill is unduly coercive and unjust in overriding the Northern Territory Nuclear Waste Transport, Storage and Disposal (Prohibition) Act 2004. This is simply not the case. Labor does not come from a position of strength on the issue to site, construct and operate a facility for the safe and secure management of Australian government agencies radioactive waste. Labor failed to construct suitable radioactive waste management facilities during its 13 years in office. Labor may well have tried to start the process back in 1992 but let us not forget one important thing! They failed. They failed because the then existing Commonwealth legislation proved to be inadequate in the face of the opportunism and parochialism of the South Australian Labor Premier, Premier Rann. As events in the Federal Court in 2004 demonstrated, the Australian Government did not have the power to complete the then Labor Government’s siting process. And let us not forget the Northern Territory Nuclear Waste Transport, Storage and Disposal (Prohibition) Act 2004. This Bill was nothing more than a political stunt by the Martin Government, knowing there was exist-ing Commonwealth legislation that could authorise operation of a Commonwealth radioactive waste man-agement facility in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory Government is in no position to criticise the Commonwealth in responsibly manag-ing its radioactive wastes given its own failure to control radioactive waste in the Territory. The Martin Territory Labor Government does not even have a clear understanding of where all of its radioac-tive waste is actually held in the Northern Territory - apart from material which is inappropriately stored under stairwells in the basement within the Royal Darwin Hospital, and some out at Mount Todd. It is also important to acknowledge the hypocrisy of the Martin Territory Labor Government and its double standard on the transport of yellowcake from South Australia and the transport of radioactive waste to a Commonwealth facility in the Territory. Yellowcake from Olympic Dam is currently safely transported by rail to Darwin and shipped from the port of Darwin with the full participation of the Northern Territory Government authorities. Yet this substance is more radioactive than any of the low level radioactive waste held by the Common-wealth which comprises 90% by volume of the entire inventory. For the past 50 years Australia has operated a small, but significant, research reactor, soon to be replaced by the new research reactor, the Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor. As a nation we must deal with an existing inventory of radioactive waste, about 4,000 cubic metres, and the small quantities that will arise from the continued need to produce radioisotopes for use in medicine, indus-try and research. It makes no sense to run public scare campaigns that completely blow out of proportion the risks and hazards associated with this low level and intermediate level radioactive waste. The sort of waste we are talking about is all solid waste - it is not a liquid that can spill or leak, it cannot explode, and it is not readily com-bustible. Australia does not produce high level radioactive waste and existing Commonwealth law as well as a long standing policy prohibits its importation. Now the Opposition inaccurately refers to this highly managed, highly regulated facility as a “dump”. This Facility will not be like a municipal tip where material is dumped off the back of a truck into a pile and then buried into the earth. It will be placed there carefully and precisely with the contents recorded and monitored. The material will either be stored above ground in a purpose built building where the containers can be monitored and checked at any time or, if a burial option is available, low level waste will be disposed of by burial - in a very precise manner that allows for monitoring and recovery of buried material if that is ever necessary. The Howard-Vaile Government is taking it’s responsibilities for radioactive waste management seriously. This Government has a plan! Those opposite and their state and territory Labor cronies with the NIMBY attitudes have nothing – nicht – nothing! Only this government can give confidence to the Australian people that they will continue to realise the benefits of the wide range of uses of radioactive materials in our daily lives. Because only this government is doing something about putting in place a low to medium level radioactive waste management facility.

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