Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Through my role in representing the state of Western Australia I come into contact with a number of people who live in the west who are highly and deeply suspicious of any form of centralised government and any edict that comes from Canberra. In fact, those of us who represent Western Australia are often accused, even by some on our own side, of being somewhat parochial. We admit to that, and we are quite proudly so. But when we debate legislation like the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2006, and when you consider the track record of this government and statements by some of its ministers, it is little wonder that people in Perth, let alone in rural and regional Western Australia, are suspicious of the conduct of this government.

Consideration of legislation like this involves a couple of significant issues. As Senator Evans has said, this legislation goes to the heart of removing any say that traditional owners of the land have about where the siting of a radioactive waste dump will be. But it also highlights the fact that this government seeks to legislate away opposition rather than consult or try to have a constructive relationship with either state or territory governments or traditional owners. When faced with any form of criticism or opposition, its solution is to legislate it away.

The fear of a nuclear power industry and the site of a nuclear waste facility is one that has been discussed in my state for quite some time. And that is little wonder, because federal members of the Liberal Party have put it on the agenda. Last year the member for O’Connor, Mr Tuckey, was talking about the issue. Who can forget the comments that he made as well as those made by the federal member for Kalgoorlie, Mr Haase, and indeed the infamous comments of the federal member for Tangney, Dr Dennis Jensen. When you add together those comments with those of the former state leader of the Liberal Party, Mr Matt Birney, the state member for Kalgoorlie, then you really have to be deeply suspicious of what this government is up to.

Mr Birney, when he was leader of the Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the state parliament, when the state parliament had passed the Nuclear Waste (Storage) Prohibition Act, went on the record last year to say that, if he were in government, he would repeal that legislation, that he was happy for a nuclear waste dump to be in Western Australia. He said that one of the first things he would do would be to repeal legislation passed by the state parliament in March of the previous year—he said this last year, so in March 2004—which bans radioactive waste dumps being established in Western Australia. So when you match Mr Birney’s comments with those of some of the federal representatives of the Liberal Party, it is something that people in my state should be suspicious of. They should be suspicious of what this government has in mind for them. Add to that the report from the Australian on 24 May this year that reported the federal member for Kalgoorlie, Mr Haase, as saying that Australia, and particularly Western Australia:

… should also consider storing high-level radioactive waste and was in the perfect position to “charge like a wounded bull for those services”.

In the same article the Liberal member for O’Connor, the infamous Mr Tuckey, was quoted as saying:

We are the ideal repository for those spent fuel rods for the simple reason we have the best geological stability …

Then there is the federal Liberal member for Tangney, Dr Dennis Jensen. He also backed the option of storing high-level nuclear waste in Western Australia.

So when you add together this government’s drive to not in any way allow the traditional owners of the land any say on whether they are going to have to deal with the radioactive waste to Mr Birney’s pledge—no doubt he is on the way back to the front bench of the Liberal Party in Western Australia, and I am sure one day we will see him completely resurrect his political career—to repeal the state legislation that outlaws a radioactive waste dump in Western Australia and to this government’s drive to expand the nuclear industry in this country, and the significant comments of leading members of the federal Liberal Party from Western Australia, it is obvious that there is a plan and that the plan goes beyond the bill that is currently before us. It is obvious that there is a plan being generated by the government, and that is to soften up people in my home state to agree to the state becoming a nuclear waste dump. As even Mr Tuckey has conceded in some quarters, and I know Senator Minchin has in others, it is not something that is electorally popular, it is not something that the people of Western Australia are prepared to be softened up for and it is not something that any of them will stand for.

This is an issue that people in WA feel very strongly about. They do not trust what people are talking about here. They have seen what has happened with this government overriding the wishes of the Northern Territory government and insisting that the site will be there. Let’s face it: that is because it is a territory and they can do it; it is not because there has been any consultation or any agreement. Now they want to remove the rights of traditional owners to have a say. People are legitimately suspicious of what is going on here.

And then who can forget the leaked cabinet submission that talked about sites for the spent fuel processing plant, the leaked submission to the federal cabinet of 1997. It talked about Perth being a likely site for a nuclear power station; it talked about what electorates they were going to be in; it talked about not releasing information about alternative sites because that may unnecessarily alarm communities in the broad areas under consideration. It is little wonder that people in Western Australia are a bit sensitive, a bit suspicious and a bit parochial. You cannot take what this government says about these issues on face value. It is just chipping away, legislating away opposition so that it can get its own way and ride roughshod over what local communities want, not just traditional owners but all local communities. I am sure the people of the Northern Territory—a territory that I spent a significant part of my early childhood growing up in—are pretty suspicious of this government.

This issue is something that people in my home state are quite legitimately concerned about because the government keeps using its numbers to chip away section after section of the legislation and to prevent one group of people after another from having a say in what is going to happen within their communities. When you add that to the stance that is taken by key Liberal Party politicians in state parliament, we really should be worried about the plans that the Liberal Party has for our community in Western Australia.

There is no doubt in looking at the roles of Dr Jensen and Mr Tuckey and in adding the comments of Mr Haase to those of his state colleague Mr Birney—whose star is on the rise again; I am sure he will have a significant contribution to make to the state Liberal Party—that there obviously is a plan, at least in the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party, to turn my home state into not just a state that has nuclear power but also one that has a radioactive waste dump. What is being said by these significant Liberal politicians is part of the softening-up process. We are not being parochial; we are being quite rightly concerned about the conduct of some of these significant Liberal politicians and what they have planned for Western Australia. These issues are not as simple as the government would have us believe. You cannot just accept what it has to say at face value; you have to look at its conduct as a whole. I think it is important that people in Western Australia understand the real plans that the Liberal Party has for our state.