Premier Jay Weatherill effectively buries nuclear waste dump proposal with vague promise of statewide referendum
PREMIER Jay Weatherill has sparked an internal Labor backlash by pitching plans for a nuclear storage referendum and refusing to abandon the idea, despite public opposition.
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PREMIER Jay Weatherill has sparked an internal Labor backlash by pitching plans for a nuclear storage referendum and refusing to abandon the idea, despite public opposition.
After a citizens’ jury called by Mr Weatherill resoundingly rejected nuclear storage and led to a collapse in political support, on Monday he said the Government now wanted a statewide referendum — but conceded that it lacked the bipartisan support required.
Mr Weatherill said no date was set for the referendum, which was unlikely to happen within at least the next decade, and rejected suggestions the State Election in 18 months’ time would be fought on the issue of a nuclear future for SA.
He also said the Government was unlikely to take significant steps to find a site or a nation willing to sell its waste to SA until a political consensus re-emerged.
“Obviously we’d have no chance of success at the moment,” he said of the referendum. “There’s no point in promoting a referendum that has no chance of success.”
The mixed political message provoked a strong rebuke from SA Unions secretary Joe Szakacs, who is leading an internal Labor push to have the nuclear policy dumped.
Mr Szakacs said a “tone deaf” Mr Weatherill was ignoring clear public opinion and sticking with a “pet project” that threatened to hurt Labor at the ballot box in 2018.
“This is either crazy or brave, because the Premier is opposing his own party’s policy, the decision of the citizens’ jury, the union movement, the conservation movement (and) Aboriginal people,” he said.
“SA Unions has long argued that the economics of the proposal just don’t add up. What this decision reveals is that the Premier can’t seem to let go of his pet project, one South Australians clearly don’t want.
“He simply seems tone deaf to what South Australians are telling him about the dump, so he’s now going to keep asking a different group of people the same question until he gets the answer he wants.”
Asked about internal divisions, Mr Weatherill insisted his leadership was “secure”.
Previously, the Premier has consistently said he did not think a referendum was the way forward; it was also opposed by the Royal Commission as a poor way to measure community consent.
Mr Weatherill said: “I believe it’s a matter the South Australian public should continue to discuss, and I am framing up a way for those discussions to continue.
“We won’t be pushing ahead with a referendum until there’s bipartisan support. We will not pursue a change to our policy, but if the mood in the community shifts and bipartisanship is re-established, we will remain open to this question.”
Mr Weatherill said local Aboriginal people would also retain a veto over a dump.
Opposition Leader Steven Marshall on Monday emerged from a partyroom meeting to declare the Liberals were united in their opposition to the dump and determined to make it an election issue.
“This is now going to set up the next election, which I think is a very clear distinction between the Premier, who wants to turn us into the nuclear dump state, and the Liberal Party which has a much greater ambition for our state,” Mr Marshall said.
“We supported a thorough investigation, but the economics simply don’t stack up ... More than that, the people of SA do not want this dump. Jay Weatherill is a desperate man trying to cling to some shred of an economic framework.”
Independent SA senator Nick Xenophon said Labor should take the issue to the next State Election.
“It needs to be an election issue first, referendum second,” he said. “I only suggested there be a referendum as a safety valve when both major parties supported the idea.
“This is beginning to look like a waste of money at a time when the Government should be focusing on alternative policies to create jobs like agriculture and manufacturing.”
Yankunytjatjara Native Title Aboriginal Corporation chairwoman Karina Lester said she did not believe any Aboriginal community would accept a high-level nuclear dump. She said the veto power was simply to “cover the Premier’s butt” and Aboriginal communities would feel “pressured and intimidated” by a vote.
Mr Weatherill said the Government was now trying to deal with “competing perspectives” in the feedback to a controversial issue which “challenges our democracy”.
The Federal Government has no plans to change laws which make it illegal to have a high-level waste facility in Australia. The SA Government would need to come up with a proposal if it wanted a change which would then be considered at the time, it said.
Friends of the Earth Australia national nuclear campaigner Jim Green said Mr Weatherill was “completely ignoring” clear community opposition. “The ‘massive issue of trust’ will become all the more massive. He seems willing to commit political suicide in his push to turn SA into the world nuclear waste dump.”
But speaking on radio FIVEaa on Tuesday morning, former South Australian Governor and Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commissioner Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce urged the state to keep the conversation going.
“Let’s get out into the community and get all the issues out on to the table and have that discussion,” Mr Scarce said.
He questioned whether a referendum was the right way forward, saying that it would only capture the public’s oninion at a moment in time and not on-going social consent, which was crucial for the project.
Rear Admiral Scarce said he had been expecting for people to challenge him on the contents of the Royal Commission’s final report but “what I’ve read indicates to me that people have not read the report.”
When asked if he felt like he’d wasted two years of his life on the process he replied: “It’s pretty hard not to come up with that conclusion - but I’m not giving up”.
“I think there is a case for this; there is a case to take to the community, for the community to consider it.
“I’m certainly not going to give up until government makes a decision one way or the other.”
So what does Weatherill really mean?
Q: What did Jay Weatherill announce?
A: That bipartisanship needs to be restored before the proposal to build a high level nuclear facility goes anywhere. If that happens against the odds, it then needs to pass a statewide referendum, with local Aboriginal people also given the final opportunity to veto the proposal.
Q: What did he mean?
A: That the proposal is dead in the water unless a stack of unlikely outcomes eventuate, but the Government is pushing ahead with its plan to hold further community discussions.
Q: Why did he do it?
A: It’s the honourable back-pedal. The Premier looks like he’s refusing to let his dream slip but has put so many hurdles in the way, the whole thing is doomed.
Q: What would it take to get us to a referendum?
A: The Opposition needs to support a referendum and then the Premier needs the backing of his cabinet and the South Australian Labor Party before he can even start talking about a popular vote. That’s a lot of steps for a referendum without a question and a date, and with no steps taken to get Opposition Leader Steven Marshall onside.
Q: What does it mean for the election?
A: Nuclear storage will be a key issue. Mr Weatherill said the election won’t be a quasi-referendum because there isn’t bipartisan support — but the Liberals effectively have the power to turn it into a vote as to whether to kill off the nuclear proposal for good. The Government will have to answer uncomfortable questions about their position.