‘Casualty’ of The Voice: MP Calls for Court Decision on Nuclear Waste Site to Be Reviewed

Empty nuclear waste shipping containers sit in front of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., on March 6, 2014. AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan

Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey is calling on the federal government to appeal a court decision to reject a nuclear waste disposal site in the remote area of Kimba.

In mid-July, the Federal Court of Australia overturned a decision by former Resources Minister Keith Pitt to give the go-ahead to build a facility at Napandee, near Kimba in South Australia.

“It’s certainly got all of the right geological requirements, we have majority support from the local community and we should never forget that this has taken 40 years and I understand some 16 ministers,” he said at the time.

Yet the presiding Justice Natalie Charlesworth said Mr. Pitt’s decision was influenced by “apprehended bias” and that his “statements strongly conveyed the impression that his mind was made up.”

The case was lodged by the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation which argued there was an Indigenous sacred site in the area, that they did not consent to the facility, and that they were excluded from a “community ballot” that voted in favour of the project.

Sweeping Away Confrontation: MP

However, Liberal MP Ramsey, whose electorate spans most of regional South Australia, including Kimba, said the court’s finding was “erroneous on two points.”

“The first was in giving standing to the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation on freehold property in the first place because we know that freehold property extinguishes native title rights,” he told Parliament on Aug. 7.

“The second was in saying that the minister was biased,” he added, noting that the process leading up to the project involved extensive community consultation.

“After a five- or six-year program to find a site in Australia where a farmer was prepared to sell their land to the Commonwealth to put the site on, after finding a community that was prepared to not only accept but welcome it—61.8 percent of people in Kimba voted in favour of this proposal—and after two Federal Court cases saying it was okay, a third one, with a new justice, ruled it ineligible,” Mr. Ramsey said.

The MP claimed the project was a “casualty” of the Labor government’s efforts to “sweep any confrontation with Indigenous groups” out of the way of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal.

Later this year, Australians will vote on a national referendum to change the Constitution for greater recognition of Indigenous people.

The two major changes include an alteration of the preamble of the Constitution and the establishment of an advisory body to Parliament that will have the power to make “representations” to the executive and legislature.

The current resources minister has been contacted for comment regarding the decision. However, Minister Madeleine King has previously said her office would review the matter.

“Labor worked with the Barngarla people in the last term of Parliament to ensure they secured the right to seek judicial review of the decision to acquire the facility site,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“The principle of judicial review is an important process that the Albanese government fully supports.”

The nuclear waste disposal site was supposed to permanently store low-level radioactive waste from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANTSO).

ANTSO had planned to use the site beyond 2030 and will now review other sites.