Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I want to be clear that we are agreeing to these amendments today, and I want to acknowledge the work of and thank Minister Pitt and his staff in his office and the staff of the department that helped us work on the action today to deal with radioactive waste in this country.

The passage of this bill, the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020, marks an important step in the process of Australia ensuring it can safely manage low-level radioactive waste associated with nuclear medicine. Until there is a cure for cancer, this radioactive waste will always be with us. The greater challenge of properly dealing with intermediate-level waste is yet to be addressed and, in my view, can only be addressed in a truly bipartisan and fully consultative fashion into the future. But today we are one step closer to dealing with the radioactive waste that this country produces. Importantly, we have kept within this legislation the principle of judicial review for all those who may feel aggrieved by a decision to be made.

I want to acknowledge the communities of Kimba and Wallerberdina for nominating their communities as a site for a radioactive waste storage site. This is a project of critical national importance, and I thank those communities for all that they've done and for their patience in waiting for the parliament to get to this point. I also acknowledge the member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey, for all the advocacy he has put forward on this matter, and all the South Australian members and senators—particularly Labor members and senators—that I've spoken to about this very important and often emotional matter.

Most importantly, I really want to acknowledge the traditional owners that we've been speaking to over this last little while, the Adnyamanthanha people. The Barngarla people have been highly engaged with me and my team over the last number of weeks dealing with this matter. It is critical that we in this place always listen to and consult with the traditional owners of the land that we seek to use, for whatever purpose that we seek to use it. I want to acknowledge the work, openness and cooperative approach of Nick Llewellyn-Jones and Geeta Sidhu, the advisers to the Barngarla people.

Most importantly, I want to acknowledge the chair of the Barngarla Corporation, Jason Bilney, and Aunty Dawn Taylor, a director of the corporation and also a community elder of the Barngarla people. They visited me in my office last week. Their concern—which has always been their concern—is to ensure that their voices are heard in the community consultation process and now, as this matter goes on to its next stage, to ensure that, should they want to, they are able to take this matter to judicial review. They simply want their voices heard. They have been, and this is reflected in the legislation we will see finalised in a few short moments. And they will be heard again should they want to contest the future declaration that the minister will make at some point. So thank you to the Barngarla people. It was a delight to meet you. Thank you for your honest, true and cooperative engagement over the past couple of weeks.

I again thank the minister and his staff, and my staff as well, for the amazing work they've done in making sure that we reach a very important step in a national project to deal with radioactive waste.

Question agreed to.

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