Barngarla People seeking Supreme Court injunction to halt Kimba vote on nuclear waste facility
A VOTE by Kimba residents on whether they want a radioactive waste dump in the district is in jeopardy after an indigenous group sought an injunction to stop it.
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A VOTE by Kimba residents on whether they want a radioactive waste dump in the district is in jeopardy after an indigenous group sought an injunction to stop it.
The Barngarla People on Tuesday applied for an urgent Supreme Court injunction to halt the Kimba vote.
The Hawker district will also vote.
Two sites near Kimba, on the Eyre Peninsula, have been short-listed as possible locations for a low-level radioactive waste storage facility. A third short-listed site is near the Flinders Ranges community of Hawker.
The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation will argue that native title-holders who live outside Kimba District Council boundaries should be entitled to vote.
The Barngarla have more than 200 members, most of whom live outside the council’s boundaries.
The group will argue that the ballot breaches the Racial Discrimination Act and that Kimba Council does not have the power to conduct the vote.
The corporation is seeking a court hearing this week. The ballots are to help the Federal Government determine a preferred site for the radioactive waste storage centre.
The legal challenge was launched as a Senate inquiry recommended that grain and produce be grown in the buffer zone of the national radioactive waste dump to “reassure the community” that it is safe.
A Senate inquiry into the selection process for three SA sites proposed by the Federal Government says that it “sees value” in the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science working with local stakeholders so that part of the remaining 60ha buffer zone can be used to “grow and test agricultural produce”.
It believes this would “reassure the community and agricultural markets” that food grown in the surrounding region does not contain “excessive amounts of radiation” and is “safe for consumption”, a report tabled in Parliament yesterday reveals.
Cameron Scott, in a submission to the inquiry, raised concerns about reputational impacts a waste facility could have on regional exports.
“All grain from Eyre Peninsula is delivered, blended and exported out of Lower Eyre Peninsula,” Mr Scott wrote.
“Therefore, Kimba’s grain is mixed with every other town’s grain on Eyre Peninsula — the effect that this could have on our exports hasn’t been taken into consideration at all.”
However, the experience of French farmers who live around a waste disposal facility in Aube was this month used to squash the “potential perception issues” from stakeholders.
The Australian Greens, in a dissenting report, called on the Federal Government to abandon its plans to build a nuclear waste dump in Outback SA.
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick said the Hawker and Kimba communities were bitterly divided and the selection process had been unfair. The Federal Government has offered $31 million worth of incentives for the community where the radioactive waste centre is built.