ABC Darwin - Radioactive Waste Management Bill
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Radioactive Waste Management Bill listed for debate today in the Federal Senate. The Northern Territory Country Liberals Senator Nigel Scullion says he’s secured Labor’s support for a minimum $10 million fund that would pay to the jurisdiction that houses the dump. Now we’ve been hearing about the radioactive waste facility for ages, and it seems that the jurisdiction that eventually hosts the dump would almost certainly have to be the NT. Nigel Scullion joins me this morning, Senator good morning to you.
NIGEL SCULLION:
Good morning.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Give me an idea, first of all how you did the deal, and why you thought the money was necessary?
NIGEL SCULLION:
Well first of all the deal that we did with the Howard Government to get our vote, both Dave Tollner’s and myself, they needed to do ten significant amendments which dealt with people’s concerns. Everything from it won’t store waste that was created overseas, it won’t store particularly waste from States and Territories who said, “no, I’m not doing it, and we’re just going to use the Territory.” So what’s happened is that I discovered that some of the States were actually planning to to “gift” it to the Commonwealth to get around that amendment. Look, I think, since it’s being established that’s fine, but those States and Territories who wouldn’t have it in their State or Territory and foistered it, in effect, on the Territory, are going to have to pay to get it stored here. So the capital contribution fund is really to be used, it’s going to be chaired by the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, and it’s going to be used to ensure that we can have scholarships for staff training in oncology, to buy particular equipment in health, for oncological use and to ensure that radio-pharmaceuticals are available in the Territory and to ensure that we’ve got the staff to continue to run the Oncology Unit in the Northern Territory.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
So the $10 million isn’t going into general revenue, it’s very targeted.
NIGEL SCULLION:
No, it’s not, it’s being targeted. But not only being targeted, it’s not $10 million. $10 million is the kick-off fund. Now the other States and Territories will pay to the Commonwealth until the $10 million is up, then it will continue to go into the fund and it will just simply be managed to the benefit of Territorians in the area of infrastructure and health.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Because that was my initial response, is that $10 million seemed to be quite small as a totality.
NIGEL SCULLION:
Well indeed, that’s just basically the Commonwealth agreed, this Government has agreed to put the $10 million in a start-off. The States and Territories will eventually be paying directly into the fund every year that they have stored the material there. That money will go directly into the fund for the disbursement by a committee for the benefit of health and infrastructure in the Northern Territory.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Nigel Scullion though, would you describe it as a compensation fund?
NIGEL SCULLION:
No, well this was specifically and directly done to ensure that the States and Territories who are no the Northern Territory, who all of them have said effectively, “we don’t want it here”. And the only place you’re then able to have it, because of the fact we’re a Territory not a State, is the Northern Territory. Well they have to pay. I think they’re being pretty duplicitous by saying, “oh no, we can’t have it in South Australia” for example, when it is the very best place to have it. And it still should be the best place to have it. And yet they’re more than happy to go and send their waste to the Northern Territory through some smarmy deal with the Commonwealth about “gifting” it to the Commonwealth.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
So when you get into the Senate today to debate the Radioactive Waste Management Bill today, will you still stand up and say that on behalf of Territorians? That you still think the Territory is not the place to put the dump?
NIGEL SCULLION:
I’ve already said it a number of times during this debate. We’re already fairly well through the debate in Committee stage, and I’ve already said that this should go in Section 52 of the Officer Basin, which is in South Australia –
RICHARD MARGETSON:
So it’s a fait du complet really, we’re almost 100% certain saying that we’ll get the dump and it will be at the Muckaty Station.
NIGEL SCULLION:
I agree with you. I agree with you, but my position has never changed. The fact is that Mike Rann and the Labor Party in South Australia politicised this debate. We spent millions and millions of dollars twenty years ago in finding the very best place for all of Australia to have a repository. And that was a requirement because to have the production by Lucas Heights with products like technetium to detect and cure cancer is an essential element of our health system, and we all know we can not put that at risk.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
So there is a little bit of, like, okay, we know we’re getting it so maybe we can have some money too? I mean you really pressed that point when you –
NIGEL SCULLION:
Well I mean, don’t forget that we’ve already had an oncology centre built in Darwin hospital to the tune of $32 million courtesy of Dave Tollner and myself. There were substantive amendments to the original Bill that satisfied ourselves in terms of the concerns of what would actually happen, what would actually be stored there, the nature of the storage, and those sort of details. So yes, you know we have been compensated to a degree, and I made the case to Mr Howard that right at the moment, at that time, people had to travel to Adelaide when they were sick with cancer, and there was absolutely no capacity for families to be close to those people who were suffering from cancer. That’s now changed as a consequence of this –
RICHARD MARGETSON:
So this is the upside of radioactive medicine and the downside for those who don’t want it, is possibly Muckaty Station. My guest is Country Liberals Senator Nigel Scullion. Nigel Scullion is not supportive, not surprisingly. Obviously Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says the deal is done. So it seems that the Government are pretty keen to start of this starting payment, as you were calling it, of $10 million, and the continuation of it. There’s an agreement between Coalition and Government. But surprisingly Scott Ludlum is still saying that he finds it offensive because there’s still a court action going about who actually owns the land and here’s a little of what he said on Radio National this morning:
“… so I find it offensive that in the middle of that court action, the Senate’s going to be debating a Bill that explicitly names and targets that site.”
He’s saying that really you should still not be naming and targeting Muckaty Station when the land is in dispute.
NIGEL SCULLION:
Well this legislation does not target Muckaty Station, or in fact target a Territory or State. And I’ll read from it
“… the site in a State or Territory (the relevant State or Territory)”
and goes all the way through, it talks about a State or Territory. In other words, wherever it may go. So this is a piece of legislation that deals with the management and the structure of the repository. It doesn’t deal with the site at all. Now, if it happens that the High Court decide that the Northern Land Council and all the process to establish the traditional owners of the area are in fact incorrect or something then we’ll all have to go back to the drawing board. But at least we will have a piece of legislation so wherever it goes in Australia we’ll know exactly how it’s going to be managed and the beneficiary of whoever puts it there will mean that the other States and Territories will have to pay a fee –
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Around $10 million starting up, already the texts roll in that $10 million over ten-thousand years is about $100 per year. Obviously there’s going to be a little bit more than that. You know that you’re going to get –
NIGEL SCULLION:
Well look there’s those ten-thousand years … look this is absolute and errant nonsense. It’s the start of a fund. The material that is coming back is intermediate-level waste. We have no choice. We decided as a nation that we would have one of the very best health systems which includes the production of radio-pharmaceuticals like Technetium. Now without that we won’t have the health system, we won’t have be able to detect, we won’t be able to cure cancer, and those sort of issues that we just take for granted. Now –
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Nigel Scullion I won’t go into that discussion because we have been having that for four or five years now. It looks very much like it will pass through. Do you expect that you would see that Bill pass through to the Senate quickly, maybe even today?
NIGEL SCULLION:
I’d like to see it that way and we’ve been debating for a very, very long time. Now the reason for the urgency is that the material has to come back from Kajima in France and Dounreay in Scotland, under our obligation is currently threatened, because we have to take that back. So it’s now actually coming back – because this has gone so long – some of the material is coming back and being stored temporarily at Lucas Heights until the facility is finished. So we’ve already almost been in breach and so we do have some urgency about passing this legislation. As you know we’ve debated it to death and whilst I do not like it going in the Territory, if the balance is well, you know Territory rights against the health of Territorians, it’s a tough ask but health gets it every time.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
Nigel Scullion, thankyou.
NIGEL SCULLION:
Thanks very much.
RICHARD MARGETSON:
CLP Senator Nigel Scullion. It goes into the Senate today, the Radioactive Waste Management Bill. Looks very much like it will go through. As part of that, the beginning of a fund, a minimum $10 million fund will go to the jurisdiction that houses the dump, and it looks like that will be the Northern Territory.
Upgrade your flash player to play the audio
