Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the government's amendments to the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020. Labor will still be supporting passage of this legislation to ensure that all traditional owners have certainty and access to legal recourse through judicial review. Labor acknowledges that radioactive waste management is a complex policy challenge that requires the highest levels of transparency and evidence while balancing the need of the community to benefit from treatments for diseases like cancer. Accordingly, Labor will act in accordance with scientific evidence and with full transparency, broad public input and best-practice technical and consultative standards, taking into account the views of traditional owners, to progress responsible radioactive waste management.

The Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources is responsible for establishing a National Radioactive Waste Management Facility, which I'll refer to as the facility, under the Gillard government's National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012. Under the existing National Radioactive Waste Management Act, the minister has the power to nominate a site that has been volunteered by a landowner, and the process is subject to judicial review. The government is proposing amendments that reinstate the ministerial site declaration process in the current act, as proposed by the opposition and as originally contemplated in the 2012 legislation; to deem certain land taken to have been nominated and approved under the act, being the three short-listed sites of Lyndhurst, Napandee and Wallerberdina; and to allow for judicial review of the ministerial site declaration aspect of the process. The amendments include compensation provisions to ensure beyond doubt that existing rights to compensation are maintained.

The current government amendments, if passed, will mean the minister will make a site declaration regarding one of the three presently short-listed sites which have been nominated and approved or any other site which is subsequently short-listed. The traditional owners, the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation, and the Adnyamathanha native title holders and all stakeholders will then have the ability to undertake a judicial review of the ministerial site declaration. The community fund of $31 million will remain as part of the legislation. Labor's primary concern with the original bill which was presented by this government, which compelled parliament to make a site selection for the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility, was that it removed judicial review. This was also the primary concern of the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation. Labor has been consistent on this. We wouldn't support passage of this legislation unless the traditional owners were comfortable with it. Finally the government has come to the table on this. Labor insisted over many months that the BDAC be consulted in relation to the current government amendments before they go before the parliament. This happened last week.

These amendments are a good compromise which maintains the ability for judicial review, at the same time acknowledging the work that has already been done in short-listing the three sites to get the process moving ahead in the interests of all Australians. Concerns had been raised by the BDAC regarding the deeming of the three sites and whether this would restrict the government in future from nominating other sites outside the three listed. Labor clarified this with the government, who have since confirmed, in the explanatory memorandum, that recognition of the three short-listed sites confirms the sites as being nominated and approved under the act but does not limit the minister from approving new nominations. The minister may declare any approved nomination as a site and is not bound to declare one of the three short-listed sites. Given this commitment in the explanatory memorandum, the Barngarla people do not oppose the amendments, as they are confident that the revised bill provides the legal recourse they need to ensure their voices are heard. Labor has also consulted with the Adnyamathanha, who have been assured that Labor would never allow the government to declare Wallerberdina against the wishes of the community. That is why Labor is supporting these amendments.

Labor supports the community development package of up to $31 million, which will be available for the host community to contribute to its economic and social sustainability. This package includes a $20 million community fund to provide long-term support for the region, $8 million in grants for four years from 2019-20 to strengthen the economic and skills base of the host community and $3 million from the government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy, which will support the delivery of an Aboriginal economic heritage participation plan.

The question of a permanent storage facility for low-level radioactive waste has been an ongoing issue for 30 years, with decades of reports, studies and tests. The scientific and technical advice is that a national facility is required for Australia to meet its international obligations to manage our own nuclear waste. The national regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, has made it clear that permanently leaving the waste at Lucas Heights is unsustainable.

National radioactive waste is predominantly the by-product of nuclear medicine. Australians depend on nuclear technology for medicines used in the diagnosis of heart disease and skeletal injuries, as well as a range of cancers. One in two Australians will use nuclear medicine in their lifetime. ANSTO can deliver over 10,000 patient-doses of nuclear medicines to more than 250 Australian and New Zealand hospitals and medical centres every week. So it's no surprise that Australia's radioactive waste has built up over 60 years.

Currently, Australia's radioactive waste is stored at more than 100 locations around the country. There will come a time when the main storage space at Lucas Heights will run out of room. There is a capacity to extend the storage capacity at Lucas Heights, but ANSTO have made it clear that they would rather use that space for scientific endeavours than as a waste facility. In their submission, the department claim that the ANSTO facility would be completely full by 2030.

The proposed national facility is expected to be in operation for 100 years and will permanently dispose of low-level radioactive waste and temporarily store intermediate-level waste. Low-level waste is made up of paper, plastic, gloves, cloths and filters, which contain small amounts of radioactivity and require minimal shielding during handling, transport and storage.

Labor is concerned that, to date, the government has been unable to provide any assurances on progress towards establishing a permanent facility for intermediate-level waste. We note that the community will expect a clear plan for a permanent facility to safely secure intermediate waste. It is hard to understand why, to date, so few resources have been allocated to the creation of a permanent, intermediate-level waste storage facility. In the absence of such resources or planning, the government should explain why the existing intermediate-level waste should be moved from one temporary storage facility to another. Labor will continue to hold the government to account and press for the department to explain how it plans to establish a permanent underground repository for waste of this nature.

It's important that this legislation pass to progress this important issue—which has been treated like a political football up until now—as nuclear medicine is part of modern health care and a storage site is necessary. Opponents of specific site selection will rightly have the opportunity to have their day in court. Labor is supporting this bill to provide certainty to traditional owners and to break the stalemate on this critical issue for Australia's security going forward.