Cabinet papers reveal British Government denied compensation to people affected Maralinga, Emu Fields nuclear tests

THE British Government did not want to pay to clean up the SA Outback after its Maralinga nuclear testing program and wouldn't pay compensation to victims.

THE British Government did not want to pay to clean up the South Australian Outback after its nuclear testing program and was reluctant to pay compensation to the Australians it exposed to radiation.

Cabinet documents from 1986 and 1987, released by the National Archives of Australia, detail how the Australian Government told the British that people who had to take samples from the toxic cloud were "undoubtedly inadequately protected and monitored for radiation exposure and that was a direct result of British assurances that they faced negligible risks of radiation exposure".

The Hawke/Keating Government was also keen to "constrain" how much money it gave to the victims of the radioactive material released at Maralinga and Emu Fields.

In the 1950s then-Prime Minister Robert Menzies let the British Government test its nuclear weapons here, potentially exposing thousands of military personnel, civilians and local Aborigines to what was known as the "Black Mist".

Some of those exposed developed sores and cancers or went blind and the Anangu land was contaminated.

The Cabinet documents show that the British Government believed hardly anyone would be eligible for compensation, and that they also questioned whether it was worth spending money to remediate the site so the traditional owners could return to live there.

Avon Hudson, who worked at Maralinga while he was in the air force, has campaigned for an apology and compensation for almost 60 years, and was a spokesman for the Australian Nuclear Veterans Association.

Now 77, he says they've been fighting "for a lifetime" and that they are "the forgotten people that they used and abused to get their bombs tested".

"(The governments) couldn't care less about us. The Menzies Government were the real criminals when they just handed us over to the British Government to be used as they saw fit with no duty of care whatsoever," he said.

"The successive governments from the '50s through to now, none of them have taken the next step and given us what they're entitled to, like a Gold Card with full medical benefits or compensation."

In April last year, veterans had their claims for compensation dismissed by British courts and had their case rejected by the Human Rights Commission.

In the documents the then Energy and Resources Minister Gareth Evans says it is important to take a "firm position" on "constraining the award of compensation" to reduce the Government's financial liability and because the British Government was "extremely sensitive" about setting precedents.

They also reveal the British thought the Australians were "moving the goalposts" by talking about a full clean-up of the site to permit the Anangu to move back in. They also "questioned the Royal Commission view that the UK had any obligation".

Mr Hudson said survivors still just wanted what they were entitled to.

"It's all failed. There is no justice," he said.