Nuclear policy a ‘death sentence’ for indigenous land: elders

Indigenous elders vow to fight plans to build nuclear power plants, warning the development will be a “death sentence” for their bond with the land.

The opposition has promised to build seven nuclear power stations on the sites of coal-fired power stations if it wins the next federal election. While no costs have been provided, the coalition has promised to provide more details before voters head to the polls.

One of the sites earmarked for a nuclear power plant, Tarong in Queensland, is on Indigenous Auntie Jannine Smith’s land.

“Over my Corpse. I will be in a tent outside the Tarong Gate,” she said.

‘It’s a death sentence for that country. It doesn’t happen. I can guarantee you now that this will not happen in Tarong.”

Smith said building a nuclear power plant on that land would “sever our connection with that sacred place of ours.”

“We are the custodians of the land, the land is our mother and we do not own our mother, we take care of her,” she said.

Paul Spearim of the Queensland Conservation Council said: “White Australia has a short-sighted approach to the country”.

He pointed to Maralinga and Emu Field in South Australia, where the British conducted nuclear tests. More than 1,000 indigenous peoples were exposed to radiation during the tests.

“You have forced poison onto traditional owners’ lands, and now Peter Dutton is proposing to create poison that will last (hundreds of thousands) of years,” Spearim said.

“We will fight these poisons, they are not welcome, and we will fight proposals to force them on us.”