Indigenous landowners sue indigenous rights body for blocking nuclear dump
5 replies, posted
[quote]Traditional owners who want a nuclear waste dump on their land are suing the Northern Land Council for more than $17 million, claiming that the federal statutory authority neglected its duty to support their bid to use the land to •alleviate crippling poverty.
Documents filed in the Federal Court allege that the NLC, which is legally bound to consult with •indigenous landholders and pursue their best interests, failed to do so repeatedly in relation to proposals to house Australia’s low-level nuclear waste at Muckaty Station.
A statement of claim obtained by The Australian further alleges that the NLC’s lawyers did not tell a judge of the same court, who in 2014 made orders that led to the abandoning of a site on the station near Tennant Creek, that he lacked the authority to do so. An audit report released last month found that, at the time that the Muckaty nomination was abandoned, the NLC was struggling to overcome a “fundamental breakdown” in governance that had •resulted in “serious failings in •almost all aspects of the council’s administration”.
The first applicant, Ngapa traditional owner Jason Bill, welcomed the serving of legal papers yesterday.
“Great news: that’s the thing that my family have been waiting for,” Mr Bill said.
“All we were asking for is a low-level waste dump … we’ve looked into it and heard about it from the professionals, and it’s not going to damage the environment.”[/quote]
[url]http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/nuclear-waste-fight-sparks-17m-claim/news-story/1fa95bb665d1dbdb653d0e2e8b7df0e9?nk=8ecd65818fd428be04074c9599dc2f6a-1501052810[/url]
Second source because it's sometimes paywalled: [url]https://www.crikey.com.au/2017/07/26/ngapa-clan-takes-northern-land-council-to-court-over-muckaty-station/[/url]
bit of a bizarre situation
[quote]“All we were asking for is a low-level waste dump … we’ve looked into it and heard about it from the professionals, and it’s not going to damage the environment.”[/quote]
sounds fair enough as long as they invest the money in the community and don't waste it.
[QUOTE=Pat.Lithium;52507959]bit of a bizarre situation[/QUOTE]
Yeah, tell me about it. It is going to be really easy to twist this into sensationalism, one way or another.
the indigenous tradition is that the land doesn't belong to anyone, it's sacred and it shouldn't be desecrated, doesn't matter what colour you are. this is fine.
I thought the title said landrovers and I was like wtf since when did these cars become sentinel and Indigenous
Besides, aren't these lands just vast empty plains?
Nuclear dump is probably one of the most environmentally beneficial things that can happen to an area. Past the initial construction it's pretty much irrelevant to the surface biome while basically guaranteeing there will be very little other development done anywhere near it.
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