Several people have asked me to write about what I found in Ferguson today. Here is my brief dehydrated tired scribble before bed. Do not judge me I literally just typed this out.
Grief, pride and anger is the short answer.
Fighting Ferguson's Dump
Natalie Wasley
In February 2010, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson introduced the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill into the House of Representatives, saying it represented "a responsible and long overdue approach for an issue that impacts on all Australian communities".
The legislation names Muckaty, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, as the only site to remain under active consideration for a national nuclear waste dump.
Following on from the very successful ‘Keep the Kimberley’ rally on August 14th, campaigners in Melbourne organised on Saturday what is planned to be the first of a series of awareness raising gatherings. See the Walmadan Country is Calling Facebook page for details and other reports, including photos, and a slideshow of photos on Melbourne Protests:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walmadan-Country-is-Calling/146535252088544
http://melbourneprotests.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/walmadan-country-is-ca...
Since the Australian Conservation Foundation launched its campaign against the proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory some 2700 signatures have been collected on the 'Dump the Dump' petition. Today, Dave Sweeney, ACF nuclear free campaigner, went to Energy and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson's office to deliver the petition, accompanied by anti-nuclear activists including members of Friends of the Earth ACE collective, who brought a trailer loaded with drums of 'radioactive waste' to highlight the message.
To chants of “Coal, don’t dig it/ Leave it in the ground/ Time to get with it”, members and supporters of Darebin Climate Action Now marched from Northcote Town Hall to the office of local Labor MP Fiona Richardson to demand an end to the Brumby government’s pro-coal policies. They handed out leaflets calling on people to ‘Vote Climate’ in the upcoming election, and posing the question ‘Can we trust Labor on Climate?’, and also delivered a copy of Beyond Zero Emissions’ Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan to the office.
The callout:
Dave Sweeney, Nuclear Free campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation, was one of the speakers at the launch of Friends of the Earth Nuclear Freeways 2010.
Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson's ears should have been burning on Wednesday evening as speakers at an information evening at Northcote Town Hall attacked his perverse obsession with building a nuclear waste dump on Indigenous land at Muckaty in the Northern Territory.
Related: Report on Anti-nuclear.net | Beyond Nuclear Initiative
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson’s announcement on 23 February of plans to dump nuclear waste at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory in spite of opposition from a range of traditional owners triggered immediate protests, including one by FoE’s ACE collective on Friday 26th. A further action took the form of an open-air film night outside his electorate office, with films projected on a makeshift screen on the side wall, while the ‘audience’ made themselves comfortable on the footpath opposite...
The following statement was issued by Friends of the Earth Australia:
Alongside the 350.org actions yesterday, FoE's Anti-Nuclear and Clean Energy (ACE) campaign held a
community bbq in Batman Park, in the centre of the electorate of pro-nuclear and pro-coal Federal Energy Minister Martin "He might be from Batman, but he ain't no superhero!" Ferguson ...
