Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really appreciated and enjoyed listening to the words of the honourable member for Lingiari. I did not know Mr Lester, but I certainly knew of him. It is with great sadness and respect that I rise in this place today, on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, on what is first-nations people's land and always will be first-nations people's land. In doing so, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which we stand, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and I would like to pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. I would also like to acknowledge the Yankunytjatjara people of Mr Lester's homeland and pay respects to their leaders past, present and emerging.

Mr Lester was born in the early 1940s at Walatina Creek, an outstation on Granite Downs Station in far north South Australia. He lived a life of vital and committed activism and achievement, despite the hardships that he endured—another outstanding role model of first-nation people's tenacity and resilience. Mr Lester stood up and fought against the atrocity that was the British nuclear testing on the Anangu people's land. Between 1952 and 1963, the British government, with the agreement and support of the Australian government, carried out nuclear tests at three sites in Australia: the Monte Bello Islands off the Western Australian coast, and Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia.

Britain wanted attainment of nuclear power and Australia was to be the dumping ground to help the British achieve their political goal. More than six decades later, the decisions of the then Menzies government still cast a horrible shadow over this nation. These decisions were made by a government with a political agenda for national security, and that tapped into the Cold War fearmongering. Menzies' decision forever changed the lives of thousands of people, and they serve as a timely reminder in this place that political agenda must never be placed above the lives of the Australian and first-nation people.

What was referred to by the Anangu people as 'puyu', meaning 'black mist', was a deadly cloud—as deadly as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result of the black mist, Mr Lester lost his eyesight at a very young age. First-nation people, as well as Australian soldiers and civilians, were all exposed to radiation as a result of this political decision. Illnesses reported included cancer, blood disease, eye problems, skin rashes, blindness, and vomiting, which are all symptoms of radioactive poisoning. The Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga areas were all chosen due to their remoteness and being uninhabited. How incredibly wrong and ignorant that ideology was; there was no consideration for the first-nation people living on the land.

The disgraceful treatment by both the British and Australian governments occurred long before the failure of these governments to appropriately and adequately monitor and manage the safety controls. The abhorrent and irreparable damage started when the government forcibly removed the Anangu people in Maralinga from their traditional lands in the lead-up to the testing. The forced relocations destroyed the traditional, cultural and spiritual lifestyle of these Aboriginal families. The damage was radiological, psychosocial, cultural and spiritual. This change was profoundly negative, and, to this day, much of the work of lifting the living conditions for first-nation people results from the loss of traditional independence, dating from the 1950s. The British and Australian governments attempted to clean the site three times—in 1967, in 2000 and again in 2009.

Mr Lester was instrumental in the many negotiations relating to Aboriginal land claims. He served as an interpreter and cultural adviser between the Anangu people and state, territory and federal governments during the arduous legal battles to win the inalienable freehold titles for traditional owners. Through Mr Lester's hard work and campaigning efforts, and 54 years after the Anangu people were forcibly removed, they were finally allowed to return home—a home that was, in fact, an atomic test site. In reality, only some areas were declared to be safe.

This is where governments continue their ignorance, which stems back to the forced removals of the Aboriginal people from their land. What kind of a home is a nuclear test site? Seven hundred trials of air and land missile strikes were tested over the decade, releasing over 100 Ks of radioactive and toxic elements on the Anangu land. What could possibly be left? For Indigenous people, the land is Mother Earth. It is sacred to their culture. After 100 Ks of radioactive and toxic elements have been on and in the land, there aren't many trees left, there is no grass and there certainly aren't any animals. We can give compensation, but nothing will replace the land and the cultural and spiritual connections. It will never be the same home again. But the fight was not yet over. Mr Lester was pivotal in continuing the fight to ensure the gold cards were provided to cover the health costs of the surviving participants of the British nuclear test program. In May this year, I was privileged to speak to the bill which allowed for gold card coverage to occur. But, as Mr Lester said, we were 60 years too late.

Mr Lester's fight and strong advocacy work lives on in his daughters, Rose and Karina. They carry on the fight for compensation for the destruction and contamination of Aboriginal lands and the dispossession of the Anangu people. Karina and Rose are both continuing their father's legacy by staunchly advocating against South Australia's recent proposals for nuclear-waste dumps. I pass on my deepest sympathy and condolences to Mr Lester's family.

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