Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

To talk about the history and management of radioactive and nuclear materials in Australia, we must talk about race, we must talk about racism and we must talk about the reality of colonisation, of stolen land and of the systemic and purposeful exclusion of First Nations people from decision-making processes from the very beginning of the existence of the country now known as Australia upon this ancient continent. I had the opportunity a couple years back to visit the Songlines exhibition when it was hosted by the National Museum here in the ACT. As part of that exhibition, there was an incredibly powerful co-located piece of digital immersive art which took you into the first-person experience of a traditional owner who was affected by the Maralinga nuclear testing. Many First Nations people were not informed that the tests were going ahead, and this art exhibition took you through their perspective and lived experience as the mushroom cloud rose high into the sky. It then took you on a journey to hear directly the voices of survivors speaking about what it was like to hear the noises and see the smoke and the mist move through the towns, and then to watch old people lose their sight. It had an incredible impact on me.

I'm from WA, and our state has a long history with these debates around the storage of nuclear waste. It has in the past been proposed many times that such a facility be hosted in Western Australia. Every single time, just like every single time this proposal is put anywhere in the country, there's a common thread, there's a common dynamic, and that dynamic is white people rocking up to a community and saying, 'Guess what, everybody? We've got the most toxic and deadly substance known to humanity. It's currently being stored a bit close to where nice, rich, white people live, and that's a bit worrying for the nice, rich, white people who vote for us at elections. Would you mind if we took this awful, toxic substance which we dug up and developed—despite the fact that you shared with us stories going back tens of thousands of years about the urgent need to keep it in the ground—and dumped it on your lands? And, while we're at it, would you mind if it also served as a global nuclear dumping ground? Surely that'd be okay with you because we've said there are going to be all these protections, and all these things we're going to do to make things safe for you. And you know that every time in the past when we've come to you and said, "Hey, we've got this idea; there'll be all these protections in place," we've always lived up to our promises, haven't we?'

That is the common thread: we've got some stuff that we don't want in our backyard; let us put it in yours. And this time is a real kicker, because this time what is proposed is to take the material stored at the Lucas Heights reactor, in Scott Morrison's electorate, in his backyard, and put it in South Australia and put it on traditional lands after a process which has excluded traditional owners. These are conversations that can be had in this country only because of the continuing existence of systemic racism and the differential power that exists in this nation between white people with money and black First Nations people without.

Another common thread of these stories is black people, First Nations people, pushing back, banding together, calling for support from allies in the broader community and shooting down these proposals, despite the fact that in this country it is reflexively expected that you as a black person will defer, that you as a First Nations person will be quiet and sit down—and maybe, if you're lucky, produce a bit of art that we can put on our walls: 'Oh, isn't that pretty!' We are hosting the longest continuing culture in the history of humanity: 'Yes, let's roll that out, particularly in the international space.' But, when the rubber hits the road and it's decision-making time, you as a First Nations person in this country are meant to shut up, sit down and let the process go ahead. And, if you're consulted, you're lucky, and that consultation is considered consent, and any demurral from that is responded to with derision and dismissal.

We have had this afternoon in this very chamber an example of that. I sat here as Senator Thorpe, a duly elected senator for Victoria, my honoured colleague, gave her perspective, her contribution to this debate, as the Greens representative on First Nations issues, and she spoke about the views of First Nations owners and she spoke about the nature of the injustice and she spoke about the risk to sacred sites, and she spoke the truth of the history. And, from the gallery, what did we hear? We heard an old white male voice utter the word 'bullshit'. I looked to my right and I wondered who it might be. I'd never seen the guy in my life. Ladies and gentlemen: who was it? It was no other than Owen Ramsey, the member for Grey, in whose electorate these dumps are being proposed.