Imagine if the cargo dumped into the sea off South East Queensland recently was cakes of uranium being exported, instead of 32 containers of ammonium nitrate. Imagine if the recent truck crash between Cloncurry and Mt Isa had also been carrying uranium (it spilled ammonium nitrate), or one of the trains that has crashed in recent years (due to vehicles crossing railway lines or faults with the line eg. buckled rails). It is bad enough that a substance as poisonous and combustible as ammonium nitrate (used in agricultural fertiliser and the mining industry) is spilt into the sea and on land – imagine if it had been a radioactive substance with a half life of thousands of years, with devastating health consequences. Just how could uranium get from a mine in Australia to another country with an absolute cast iron guarantee of safety, when the government can’t even prevent the spillage of poisons such as ammonium nitrate?
Ranger uranium mine is leaking100,000 litres of contaminated water into world heritage listed Kakadu National Park, daily, according to a government employed scientist. Apparently mine owners have racked up more than 150 breaches since the mine opened in 1981. What is the NT government doing about it – they’re going to talk to owners, ERA. Again. What is the Federal government doing about it? Same thing – absolutely nothing. (Maybe Peter Garrett & Penny Wong are going to co-write a song about it to fix it? Or should we just put ‘Blue Sky Mine?’ back into our cd players?)
Mt Leyshon (Charters Towers) has leaked cyanide and at least two mine dams are leaking serious heavy metal pollution into pristine north-west Queensland waterways. What is the EPA doing about it? They flew over it to have a look and took some water samples.
A ship sailed into Cyclone Hamish and dumped containers and oil, the latter washing up onto SE Qld beaches. Did members of the Queensland government just fly over it and take some water samples, or decide to just have a chat to those who caused the problem? Certainly not! They have sunk a lot of money into the necessary people and expertise to clean it up asap. And there is talk of prosecuting the ship owners and/or captain – as they should be. How about new laws enabling governments to immediately prosecute ships that sail into regions where there is a current cyclone warning – especially along the Queensland coast, where the world’s largest coral reef is situated?
When environmental disasters occur in remote areas nothing happens, whereas when they happen in the SE corner, the government pulls out all stops to at least be seen to be doing their best to fix the problem. When there was talk of damming Tasmania’s Franklin River, environmentalists pulled out all stops to prevent it. When MacCarthur River Mine wanted to divert kilometres of a whole river, they just started to do it, and virtually nobody lifted a finger to stop them – certainly no city-based environmentalists jumped on the cause straight away. Though it is just as pristine and would undoubtedly contain many species that have not been identified (the bush is understudied, the reef and rainforest overstudied by comparison), it’s remote and it’s not pretty enough, unlike the reef & rainforest.
The above environmental disasters are reminders that it doesn’t matter what laws and safety systems are in place, disasters will always happen. Honest human beings will always make mistakes, and shifty ones will always cut corners to line their own pockets, regardless of the consequences. This fact is as old as time. Yet there are people around insisting that uranium mining, and nuclear power, can be guaranteed to be safe. A system is only ever as good as the weakest link, and that only has to be one idiot who stuffs up or doesn’t care.
Invariably, when there is talk of dumping radioactive waste (with a half-life of thousands of years), the powers that be want to dump it in remote areas, ‘where no-one lives’. Trouble is, people live all over Australia; and surely the most unsuitable waste dump location is in the most environmentally pure landscapes, full of native plants and animals. It actually makes more sense to dump waste where there’s next to no native animals or plants, and already so much pollution and ugliness that a bit more really wouldn’t make a lot of difference. And we’re always told this waste is really safe anyway. And the most dangerous place to dump waste is a remote area where large numbers of the general population are not on hand to ensure that those in charge are running the show properly. So why not dump it in the centre of Sydney?
Soil on the downwind side of Mt Isa is contaminated with lead from years of mining activity (despite the protestations to the contrary, from MIM and Xtrata). This, combined with the abovementioned mining dam leaks, would surely be enough to convince locals that a uranium mine would be the last thing they’d want on their doorstep. But no, Mt Isa ALP politician Betty Kiernan apparently believes that a uranium mine is a good idea. Does she really think people are so stupid that they would sell their children’s future health for a handful of jobs? And surely she can join the dots, and realise that her huge, remote electorate would already be number one on the state and federal government’s list of favoured locations for a radioactive waste site? And if locals accepted a uranium mine in the Mt Isa region, then they would not be able to knock back a radioactive waste dump?
And surely Lawrence Springborg, the LNP president, is smart enough to realise that the last thing wanted by National Party voters, mostly in rural areas, is a uranium mine and a radioactive waste dump in their region? Any more than residents along the major road and rail corridors would want uranium transported via truck or train – and coastal residents certainly wouldn’t want uranium exported through ports in the middle of their cities. It sounds like a recipe for environmental disaster upon disaster, and from a politician’s point of view, electoral suicide.
The greens have some good environmental policies. However conservation is a middle-class luxury. Sustainability is unachievable without a healthy, stable economy. When things are tight people lapse into survival mode and forget about caring for the environment. Sound economic policy has to be the number one priority – and at the heart of that is a healthy small business sector, as small businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy. As the greens party is full of people who’ve spent their whole lives lurking around educational institutions – if not social work or other public service fields, financial management is clearly not going to be their strongest point.
So is it time for a brand new common-sense, long-term thinking political party, that does all things in moderation – a mob who can run the state’s business in an efficient and fair manner – for everyone in the state, not just those in the SE corner; combined with sensible sustainability policies – such as compulsory minimum energy efficiency ratings for all dwellings (whether residential or commercial) prior to building approvals being granted; compulsory solar hot water systems, decent rebates for installing solar energy systems, bike tracks linking schools and suburbs instead of V8 car tracks, etc. With spending on major, long-term infrastructure, and a ditching of iniquitous taxes such as stamp duty payable on home insurance policies, to encourage everyone to help themselves as much as they can, rather than relying on handouts.
And – an environmental bond levied on all mining companies, and held in trust in perpetuity, to pay for environment rehabilitation should damage occur at any stage. Too often environmental damage is discovered, or occurs, after a mine has been shut and there’s no money left in the till for reparation. Lady Annie Mine is a classic example – bankrupt – and the Mt Oxide owners Perilya Mining – are of course claiming that the recent iridescent blue/green pollution wasn’t caused by them, it was old mining works that was to blame.
Good luck to the Independent candidate at Mt Isa, Keith Douglas Jr, on Saturday. He is setting up a support group combining graziers, the EPA & DPI so that everyone is informed immediately when pollution occurs, graziers know how to deal with it, and there is prompt action – and compensation from those responsible for the mess. If only there were more politicians who really cared about remote area residents, and the environment away from the pretty & popular bits.