Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I guess there were two surprises in the minister's comments there, one being that she believes Maralinga has been rehabilitated. I am sorry to break your heart, Minister Nash—Maralinga is still a mess. There are parts of that site that are heavily laced with plutonium from a botched effort to rehabilitate that site some time ago. Maralinga is not a safe place for people to go. Admittedly, it is a huge land area and much of it is, but there are areas in there that are still heavily contaminated and, I believe, that goes for some of the other test sites as well.

The Alligator Rivers Region that I referred to refers to a number of smallish—by today's standards—uranium mine sites that were worked out in the fifties and sixties. It will be a pleasant surprise if you can confirm that those sites are to be considered as part of the ambit of this bill, because that was not my understanding. Maybe the minister would like to clarify. If you miss spoke that would be a shame, but if those are a couple of sites that are brought a little bit closer to better regulation then that would be a welcome development.