Nuclear waste storage facility legislation passes Senate

The Federal Government is now expected to name Kimba as the site of the facility after a key vote in Canberra.

A nuclear waste dump set to be built in South Australia has cleared a major hurdle, with a shortlist of sites passing the Senate on Monday night.

Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt is now required to name a site, which is expected to be Napandee farm, near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula.

Mr Pitt said: “This is an historic moment for our country that will pave the way for a critically important piece of national infrastructure.”

He said while the bill has been amended, the Government would not be placing the facility in a community that does not provide broad support for it. Wallerberdina voted against the facility in 2019, and is not expected to be the site.

After months of deadlock, Labor agreed to back the Bill after the government last week proposed changes that would name three possible sites for the facility instead of specifying Kimba.

Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt Picture: Martin Ollman

The opposition had refused to back the original Bill over concerns that naming the site in legislation, rather than by a ministerial decision, would prevent the possibility of a future legal challenge.

Labor senator Murray Watt said the amendments were a “good compromise” that allowed for a potential judicial review but also acknowledged the work that had been done to shortlist three sites.

Lyndhurst, in northeast SA, Kimba, and Wallerberdina, in the Flinders Ranges, are listed as the three possible sites.

But the minister is not prevented from approving new site nominations, and is not bound under the revised bill to declare one of the three currently shortlisted sites.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused the major political parties of joining to “dump on South Australia”.

She said community consultation for the sites had been a “debacle” which treated the traditional owners “terribly”.

Labor consulted with the Kimba region’s traditional owners, the Barngarla people, before backing the Bill.

The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation was opposed to the Kimba site, but Mayor Dean Johnson last week said the community just wanted a decision.

EARLIER

Napandee Farm near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula was named as the preferred site in February 2020 but draft laws to establish the facility have been stalled in parliament for months.

The federal government last week proposed changes that would reinsert the possibility for a judicial review, in a bid to win Labor’s support and get the laws through the Senate.

An artist's impression of the radioactive waste site at Napandee, near Kimba.

Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey, Napandee owner Jeff Baldock and Resources Minister Keith Pitt at Napandee Farm.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt said the facility was “a critically important piece of national infrastructure” that must be progressed “after more than four decades of governments trying to resolve the issue”.

He urged the Opposition and crossbench senators to back the bill.

Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson said the community just wanted a decision.

“We just look forward to a resolution so our community can move forward,” Mr Johnson said.

He welcomed changes to the draft laws if it would secure Labor’s support, and said the minister should declare the site “as soon as possible”

The facility will be used to permanently store low-level waste, and also keep intermediate-level waste temporarily, for several decades.

A protest rally in Kimba in February 2020 after the town was chosen to house the new National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. Picture: Matt Turner

Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson.

Australian Conservation Foundation Nuclear Free Campaigner David Sweeney said Mr Pitt had “finally accepted the reality” the proposal did not have support and needed to be revised.

“The return of legal review is important but it is extraordinary that the Minister ever thought its removal was reasonable,” Mr Sweeney said.

“A day in court is a fundamental right and to seek to remove this was deeply flawed – as is the government’s wider plan.”

The federal government has argued a radioactive waste storage facility is needed because Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s Lucas Heights facility will start reaching capacity from 2026.

Mr Sweeney said there was no compelling case to move intermediate level waste from ANSTO’s site to Kimba, and it had been opposed by the traditional owners.

He added the reintroduction of Wallerberdina, which was ruled out in 2019, showed the government was “making policy on the run”.

Originally published as Nuclear waste storage facility legislation passes Senate