Ms MACKLIN (8:57 PM) —Labor will oppose the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2006. This is the latest instalment in a series of three related extreme, arrogant and heavy-handed bills. Labor will continue to defend the right of the community, including Indigenous communities, to be properly and fully consulted before decisions are made about the location of radioactive waste dumps. This bill amends the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 and the principal act, the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005, to make land nominations as distinct from decisions not reviewable under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act, provides that failure to comply with the site nomination rules in the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005 will not affect the validity of the minister’s approval of a nomination and removes any entitlement to procedural fairness in relation to a nomination of a site. The bill also amends the principal 2005 act to provide for the return of nominated Aboriginal land used for a radioactive waste management facility when no longer required for the facility and indemnifies traditional owners following the land return against any damages claims arising from the use of the land for a facility.

The bill continues the Howard government’s history of removing the voice of local communities in this government’s campaign to impose a waste dump on the Northern Territory. This campaign should be seen for exactly what it is—a taster for the methods the Howard government intends to use in imposing nuclear power stations and high-level waste dumps on unsuspecting communities right around Australia: tricky tactics like denying real intentions before an election then springing it on a community straight after, or misusing parliamentary numbers to override every legislative right, protection and safeguard normally available to everyday Australians when they want to have their say on government decisions which affect them. Accordingly, I move:

To begin with I want to remind the House of the circumstances underlying the 2005 bill pushed through this parliament late last year.

The SPEAKER —Order! It being 9.00 pm, the debate is interrupted.