Community welcomes Senate Report recommendation to scrap waste dump laws

by asenkidsNo Comments
Media release December 18, 2008 Community welcomes Senate report recommendation to scrap waste dump laws Territory Environment groups, traditional owners and community members have welcomed a Senate Committee report released today, which recommends repealing federal powers to impose a federal radioactive waste dump on the NT. The Senate Committee has called for the heavy-handed Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act to be repealed in the first few weeks of 2009 sittings, saying the legislation is “deeply flawed” and “not a suitable foundation on which to build Australian nuclear waste policy”. The Senate report refers to continued opposition from communities and the Northern Territory government and states there is “no sound jurisdiction for targeting of the Northern Territory.” “The report acknowledges the need for voluntary engagement in site selection processes and also access to legal appeal mechanisms. Neither of these rights is currently in place under the Howard government law, ” explained Natalie Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative in Alice Springs. Ms Wasley pointed to inaction on this...
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Creating unprecedented, unpredictable political consquences

by asenkids Comment Closed
Twenty years ago, my mother had a letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald. I found the page yesterday: yellowed, tattered, and almost as old as me. The Editorial criticised the Hawke Labor Government’s statement on environmental policy for failing to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, it said, “Australian Governments will not be walking away from the greenhouse issue. The electorate will not let them.” Twenty years later – almost my entire lifetime – this Labor Government has finally set targets, but targets that scarcely aim to reduce Australia’s greenhouse pollution to the day of that Editorial. Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong have walked away from a safe climate future. The question is whether we will let them. What we hear and learn about climate change is truly alarming – that soon there will be no summer ice in the Arctic; that already, people have been displaced from their lands; and that our...
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National student network joins community groups in rejecting Rudd's CPRS

by asenkids Comment Closed
The Australian Student Environment Network joins hundreds of community climate change groups and environment NGOs in rejecting Rudd's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). Last week, Kevin Rudd officially lost the support of the Australian climate movement as over 150 groups and up to 2,500 people called for his flagship climate policy, the CPRS, to be scrapped at Australia’s Climate Action Summit. “Rudd’s CPRS will reward polluting industries, disempower Australian communities and do nothing to solve the climate crisis,” says Steve Skitmore from the Australia Student Environment Network “We want a safe climate, yet Kevin Rudd and state Labor Premiers are rewarding and expanding the polluting coal industry. If the Rudd Government won’t create a just transition away from coal, Australian communities will, through creative local action and mass civil disobedience.” “Green jobs need to be rapidly created for workers in the coal industry to ensure a just transition and viable future for communities that currently rely on income from polluting industries,” says...
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Crackdown on climate protests

by asenkids Comment Closed
Lateline ran a story on February 2nd on moves by State and Federal Governments to legislate tougher penalties for climate change protesters. It features footage from many actions student climate justice activists were part of in 2007 and 2008. You can download the story here: 20090202-late-climate_video4.wmv TRANSCRIPT Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 02/02/2009 Reporter: Margot O'Neill More than 150 climate change groups have opposed passage of the Government's carbon trading scheme through Parliament, saying the targets are dangerously low. Transcript TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Well, the Federal Government has lost the support of most of the Green lobby, including influential Australian Conservation Foundation for its key response to climate change. More than 150 climate change groups which met in Canberra over the weekend, announced today they would oppose the passage of the Government's Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme through Parliament. They say the Rudd Government's targets are disastrously low and overly compensate the biggest carbon polluters. Meanwhile State and Federal Governments are considering tougher penalties for climate change protesters, and tomorrow a major...
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Mega Uranium lodges application to mine WA's Lake Maitland

by asenkids Comment Closed
The West Australian reported on the 31st of Jan that Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore said "uranium mining could be a reality within four years [in WA]", especially since Canadiam mining company, Mega Uranium, has applied to mine the Lake Maitland project. The Lake Maitland project is located in the Goldfields and is the fifth biggest deposit in W.A. If mined, it could be worth up to $4.6 billion. It is yet to be approved.| Apparently "the proposed project will be subject to strict regulations and an extensive public consultation period", according to Moore. I wonder how they're going about public consultation, and hopefully W.A. crew will mobilise and put pressure on the company and investors! Mega Uranium also seems to be doing some exploration in Queensland on the Georgetown Project: http://www.megauranium.com/main/?newsRoom&283...
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