CLP Still Supports Nuclear Waste Dump

Member for Lingiari and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs Warren Snowdon said today the CLP was still selling the Territory a shonky bill of goods on the nuclear waste dump.

Mr Snowdon said the Member for Solomon had gone to the election promising that there would be no waste dump.

'But come the vote and he rolled over and supported legislation that overrides the interests of the people of the Northern Territory,' he said.

'And now he claims to speak in support of a waste dump on behalf of the entire Territory – not just his own tiny electorate.

'Not only that, he's now suggesting the Territory get into nuclear enrichment.

'He may well accuse Labor of hypocrisy over uranium.

'But his own hypocrisy on this issue is breathtaking by comparison

'He made a promise before the last election and reneged on it, lied to the electors of Solomon and the people of the Territory.

'It is a lie when you tell people one thing and do another, which he did when he dogged it and supported the imposition of a dump on the NT by John Howard.

'He colluded with the dishonest selection of potential sites and now he's turned into an advocate for the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

'No-one argues with the fact that Australia needs safe storage of nuclear waste.

'But the Government chose three sites – all in the NT – on the basis of a desktop survey.

'That's about as shonky a process as sticking a pin in a map of the Territory only and pretending you've made an objective choice out of all the possible options in Australia.

'But it pales into insignificance beside the hypocritical cant of the Member for Solomon and his Senate colleague – the Dodgy Brothers of politics who have dogged it on nuclear waste,' Mr Snowdon said.

2006-09-07