Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have two answers to questions I took on notice during question time. The first relates to a question asked by Senator Ludlam on Tuesday, 1 March. I seek leave to incorporate the answer in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The answer read as follows—

In March 2010, the Minister met a large delegation of Ngapa Clan members and executive members of the Northern Land Council in Darwin where unanimous support was expressed for the nomination of a potential radioactive waste management facility site on Ngapa land at Muckaty Station.

In October 2010, the Minister wrote to the Traditional Owners opposed to the construction of a radioactive waste management facility.

Recommendation I provided that the Minister should consult with all parties with an interest in selecting the site at Muckaty Station as soon as possible.

As indicated by the Minister for Resources and Energy on 21 February 2011 during the House of Representatives debate on the Bill:

“if I were to undertake consultations as the Minister at the present time, it would have to be pursuant to the terms of the existing Act, which we seek to repeal … I am not prepared to enter into negotiations with third parties on the basis of an Act that does not allow procedural fairness and other protections”.

Far from being an “unorthodox arrangement” as suggested by Senator Ludlam, locating the radioactive waste management policy function with the resources policy function has been the prevalent arrangement over the last thirty years.

Radioactive waste policy has been the policy responsibility, successively, of the Department of National Development and Energy, the Department of Resources and Energy, the Department of Primary Industries and Energy, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and now the Resources Division of the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.

Only in the period 2001 to 2007, when this function was located in the Department of Education, Science and Training, has it been separated from the resources policy function. Regardless of the location of the radioactive waste function, it continues to have access to the advice of relevant expert Commonwealth agencies including the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in the Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Portfolio and Geoscience Australia in the Resources, Energy and Tourism portfolio.