Debate resumed from 10 October, on motion by Senator Santoro:

That this bill be now read a second time.

upon which Senator Stephens had moved by way of an amendment:

        At the end of the motion, add “but the Senate condemns the government for:

             (a)    its extreme and arrogant imposition of a nuclear waste dump on the Northern Territory;

             (b)    breaking a specific promise made before the last election to not locate a waste dump in the Northern Territory;

             (c)    its heavy-handed disregard for the legal and other rights of Northern Territorians and other communities, by overriding any existing or future state or territory law or regulation that prohibits or interferes with the selection of Commonwealth land as a site, the establishment of a waste dump and the transportation of waste across Australia;

             (d)    destroying any recourse to procedural fairness provisions for anyone wishing to challenge the Minister’s decision to impose a waste dump on the Northern Territory;

             (e)    establishing a hand-picked committee of inquiry into the economics of nuclear power in Australia, while disregarding the economic case for all alternative sources of energy; and

              (f)    keeping secret all plans for the siting of nuclear power stations and related nuclear waste dumps”.