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Proposed SA nuclear waste dump complications


PM Archive - Wednesday, 16 July , 2003  18:42:00

Reporter: Nance Haxton

TANYA NOLAN: The fight over the establishment of a nuclear waste dump in South Australia is quickly descending into farce, with now more competing claims over the property where it's to be built.

A state government bid to thwart federal plans for the dump may well be decided tonight in the state's upper house, which will vote on a retrospective bill to turn the chosen site into a state park.

But the family which leases the pastoral station on which the Commonwealth wants the repository built, says it will legally challenge any legislation which would turn the property into a public park.

Meanwhile, the traditional owners of the region are also steadying for a fight, and have written to the Queen in a bid to stop the dump going ahead.

Nance Haxton reports from Adelaide.

NANCE HAXTON: Since the Federal Government announced in May that it had chosen a site for a low-level radioactive waste repository at Arcoona Station, near Woomera, the State Government has been fighting desperately to block the plan.

It was stymied in its first move to make the chosen site a public park when the Commonwealth revealed it had compulsorily acquired the land. The State Government 's next step was to make the bill converting the land to a park retrospective.

That legislation is now facing a sceptical audience in the state's Upper House. And as of today, it's not just the Federal Government that Premier Rann is arrayed against.

The Pobke family, which runs 20,000 sheep on Arcoona station, stepped into the fray this afternoon, announcing they will mount a legal challenge in the Supreme Court if the legislation is passed.

Lawyer for the Pobkes, Tony Hurren says they were left with no choice.

TONY HURREN: This proposed park would sit, of course, in the middle of nowhere at the end of a 35 kilometre track through their land. The track is virtually impassable. It is absurd to suggest that the public are welcome to drive 35 kilometres through a virtually impassable track, to a spot in the middle of nowhere, particularly in the summer months when it would be inviting fatality to suggest that it could be open to the public.

NANCE HAXTON: So they're in a situation where they would prefer that the land became, or part of that land became, a radioactive waste repository rather than a public park?

TONY HURREN: Well, they wouldn't prefer the repository over a park. They don't like either, but they have to deal with each on their own terms, on its own terms, and they don't like the idea of having members of the public dying on their land, effectively.

NANCE HAXTON: South Australia's Environment Minister, John Hill, admits that the bill's passage is now even less likely.

JOHN HILL: Well, I guess that's what it's designed to do, but we're continuing to talk to the Independents. I mean, the reality is the land in question, which the Pobkes have a lease over, is Crown land, it's the state's land, and what we're attempting to do is to stop the Commonwealth putting a radioactive waste dump on our land, and the way we're doing that is to turn this into a park.

That will have minimal impact on the Pobkes, they'll still be able to graze on that land, which they won't be able to do if it's turned into a dump. So I would have thought they would be better off under our proposition than they would be under the Commonwealth's proposition.

But, you know, everybody's entitled to their point of view, and if they want a dump on that land in preference to a park, well I guess they're entitled to have that view.

TANYA NOLAN: South Australia's Environment Minister, John Hill, ending Nance Haxton's report.