Barngarla: Help us Have a Say on Kimba

22 June 2021 Joint Press Release:
Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation and No Radioactive Waste on Agricultural Land in Kimba or SA
 
The issue of the nuclear waste facility is something which provokes significant emotion, and community opposition. However, no one else is as affected by it like we are. We issue this joint press release as the First Peoples for the Kimba area, and the farming communities who make their livelihood from the land because we are having our home, our land and our heritage threatened. We are the groups of people whose lives will be permanently damaged, if a waste facility is placed on our home.

We have fought hard and will continue to fight against a nuclear waste facility being placed on our home. We do not want it, and we will never support it. Our voices and views have been ignored by the Government. Local member Rowan Ramsey has been one of the main influences in pushing the Government to place a nuclear waste facility at Kimba. If you do not want this facility in SA or in the Eyre Peninsula or the Mid-North, then you must vote out Rowan Ramsey. We will never end this issue, whilst he is a local member.

The Government has completely and utterly miscarried the site selection process. There are many examples of this. No proper heritage assessment of the site was ever undertaken, and they have marginalised the voices of the farming community throughout the entire process.
However, the most obvious and appalling example of this failed process was when the Government allowed the gerrymandering of the Kimba “community ballot”, in order to manipulate the vote. The simple fact remains that even though the Barngarla hold native title land closer to the proposed facility than the town of Kimba, the First Peoples for the area were not allowed to vote.
They prevented Barngarla persons from voting, because native title land is not rateable. Further, they did not allow many farmers to vote, even though they were within 50km of the proposed facility, because they were not in the Council area. They targeted us, because they knew that if they had a fair vote which included us, then the vote would return a “no” from the community.
The process also ignores the fact that the Government never sought the views of the communities which will be affected by the transport of nuclear waste. Those communities, where the waste will be transported through, have had no right to have a say. South Australians more broadly haven’t had any rights to have a say.
 
Mistakes have been made and the process needs to start again. Instead, the Government sought to change the law to remove our democratic right to judicial review of their actions so that no Court could ever assess what had been done. We find this staggering, as checks and balances are needed for a functioning democracy. The removal of independent scrutiny is, for all Australians, frightening.
 
Protecting judicial review was the issue before the Federal Senate on Monday. It is important to understand that this is what the Senate was debating. We have won our right to have judicial review restored in this process. The broader failures are matters which will have to be dealt with in the future.
 
The Government have been forced by the Senate to preserve judicial review. The table in Schedule 1 of the Government’s revised Bill, is merely a face-saving exercise, and has no legal impact or effect. Even the Government Explanatory Memorandum makes this clear. Their own document states:
“Recognition of the three shortlisted sites confirms the sites as being nominated and approved under the Act, but does not limit the Minister from approving new nominations. The Minister may declare any approved nomination as a site, and is not bound to declare one of the three shortlisted sites”
 
The Government’s attempt to remove judicial review was so egregious and careless, that it provoked almost unanimous opposition across the political spectrum. This is a great moment for democracy, and for those who appreciate the importance of independent scrutiny of Government action, this is a day that the Barngarla people and the farmers at Kimba have saved one of the fundamental rights in a Democratic Country.
Because the Government were opposed by everyone from very different political backgrounds, such as: Labor, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, the Greens and Senator Patrick, we consider it appropriate to express our thanks to all of these groups.
This reflects the fact that judicial review is a pivotal right no matter a person’s political background. We thank everyone in no particular order, as it remains the fact that had they not stood together, the Government would have removed the democratic rights of judicial review from us, and set a precedent which would have weakened democracy for all Australians:
• Labor: The Australian Labor Party deserves congratulations from all Australians for its actions. Without  the support of the Opposition, the Government would have gotten away with removing a fundamental democratic right from us and set a precedent to remove that right every other time they did not get their way.
Labor listened to all of us, but in particular they lived up to their commitment to listening to the First Peoples for the Kimba area. The Barngarla worked extensively with Labor, and in particular the Shadow Minister Ms Madeliene King ensured that the Barngarla were entitled to review any further amendments before they were
introduced.
We intend to write to other members of Labor, such as Senator Wong who has fought for all South Australians to express our thanks. As a party, however, they have been outstanding.

More broadly, there is the issue of what to do if Labor win Government. Many in Labor do not support a process where Aboriginal people were denied the right to vote. We believe Labor will continue to fight for us. But that is tomorrow’s issue. Monday was about judicial review, and Labor protected us and by extension all Australians, by preserving our right to judicial review.

• Pauline Hanson’s One Nation & State Leader of One Nation in SA Ms Jennifer Game: It remains a simple statement of fact that without PHON and Ms Jennifer Game, there would be a nuclear waste facility on prime farming land, in circumstances where Aboriginal people were denied the right to vote, and Aboriginals and farmers would have no right to independent legal review.

For those of you out there who might relate to this side of politics, particularly the farmers in the Eyre Peninsula, who do not want a waste dump then we strongly suggest you look at what One Nation and their representative Ms Jennifer Game have done to save South Australia from nuclear waste. They said “no” and listened to the local farming community when the Local member ignored us.

The Barngarla also recognise the great work of PHON and Ms Jennifer Game. It is a testimony of our work together that we have prevented the Government from removing fundamental basic rights for all Australians.

• The Greens: Special recognition must be given to the Greens. This is an issue that is central to the Greens, they have stood up and through their tireless and passionate advocacy have helped us immensely.
All Green supporters should be proud of their party’s efforts. In particular, Senator Hanson-Young has been a tireless advocate for South Australia. She was one of the first Senators to help us, and we imagine she will be with us to the end of this fight.
 
We would also like to acknowledge the strong words of Senator Thorpe. We agree that the Government has been tokenistic in its approach to the Barngarla people. What could be more tokenistic than saying they want to hear Barngarla views, but then deny the Barngarla the right to vote. It is our hope that with advocates like
Senator Thorpe, no other Aboriginal group will ever have to be treated in such a despicable way.

• Senator Patrick: Senator Patrick deserves great credit for his commitment to South Australia. He deserves the recognition of everyone committed to our State. He has been actively engaged on this issue from the very beginning. He has tirelessly fought to access Government documents under FOI so that South Australian’s can have access to the information which shows how badly this process has been miscarried.
We would like to thank Senator Patrick for his regular commitment and support to us in fighting to ensure our access to judicial review. Senator Patrick has also sought to find other solutions by trying to assess additional site options, whether Woomera or Leanora or others. We hope that this work by Senator Patrick will one day pay
dividends, and the Government will abandon its terrible plan to place this facility on prime agricultural land, which is significant also to the Barngarla People.

• The remaining cross bench: We would also like to thank the efforts of the remaining cross bench. Although we did not ultimately need to rely on their votes, we understand that they would likely have ensured our rights to judicial review. They spoke to us and engaged and should be acknowledged for their efforts.

Further information contact:
Barngarla: barngarlamedia@gmail.com
Peter Woolford: 0447 001 493

Adelaide FoE AGM May 22nd

The Draft Agenda

Welcome @2pm

(A) Guest Speaker Frank Barbaro, and a preview of Adelaide 2.0, looking at how the city might be better designed.

Jim Green, editor of Chain Reaction, talks about the new issue!

** Break **

(B) Formal AGM

Minutes and reports from ASC

The appointment of the following officer-bearers:

facilitator, who shall convene meetings of the association and arrange for their facilitation;
secretary, who shall deal with correspondence and keep the records of the association;
treasurer, who shall keep the financial records of the association and organize an audit when necessary;
membership officer, who shall keep up-to-date membership records;
and public officer;
appointment of other ASC members

Any other Business.

If you wish to attend via Zoom, here are the details:
2pm start:

Meeting ID: 896 0740 2046
Passcode: 715075

Adelaide FoE AGM 2pm Sat May 22nd

Our AGM will be held at the Box Factory at 2pm on Saturday, May 22nd. Please gather at 2pm for a 2:15 start. We will make allowance for people to Zoom in, if they prefer.

The Box Factory is at 59 Regent St South, Adelaide

The Draft Agenda

i. Confirmation of the minutes of the previous annual general meeting

ii. Consideration of the accounts and reports of the administration and strategy collective

iii. The appointment of the following officer-bearers:

facilitator, who shall convene meetings of the association and arrange for their facilitation;
secretary, who shall deal with correspondence and keep the records of the association;
treasurer, who shall keep the financial records of the association and organize an audit when necessary;

membership officer, who shall keep up-to-date membership records;

and public officer

iv. appointment of other ASC members

v. considering any proposed amendments to the constitution 

Morrison mumbles at Climate Talks

At the recent climate talks organised by the US, Australia tried its best to look as if it was doing something. Ketan Joshi of Renew economy summarises the attempt in his piece Morrison finds shameless new way to fake climate action as world steps up

Japan, Canada and the US announced updates to their 2030 climate targets. Korea promised to end overseas coal financing, and China has promised to peak coal usage by 2025. Australia, meanwhile, announced, very literally, nothing new.

Australia’s current state of climate action falls within two categories. The first is thimbles of cash poured into whichever technology has a zero percent probability of impacting the revenue streams of fossil fuel operations, at least not prior to the retirement age of current executives and politicians. That’s fossil hydrogen and CCS.

The second category is also a dense bush of confusion and misdirection. It involves twisting the numbers tracking and targeting climate action to artificially manufacture emissions reductions where there are none. And in the tiny space of time that Morrison was audible, he crammed in a lot.

The first was representing Australia’s emissions as proportions of either population or GDP, instead of absolute values. That’s because if population or GDP rise, and emissions stagnate, the numbers still look like they’re falling. Morrison has been twisting emissions values into so many different versions he got tangled over his own words, saying that “achieving our 2030 targets will see emissions per capita fall by almost half of our emissions per unit……ah, by of GDP by 70%”.

The sheer density of deceptions in the speech were exhausting. “Already we’ve reduced our emissions by 19% on 2005 levels” – the only dataset I know of that estimates 2020’s total emissions is the December 2020 department emissions projections, and that definitively says it’s 16.6%. “More than most other similar economies” […] Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, excluding the controversial land use sector accounts, are rising far faster than every country Morrison and Taylor used for comparison.

Fight Morrison’s Dirty Gas Plans

Alex, from AYCC writes:

The Morrison Government has just signed a $1 BILLION energy deal with South Australia – bankrolling millions for polluting gas projects under the guise that it will help Australia “responsibly combat climate change” [1] 

They’re not fooling us. 

The Government’s dirty gas agenda would lock us into emissions for decades to come, exacerbating climate change –  yet instead of prioritising our climate and our communities, the Morrison Government is planning to spend millions of public dollars expanding the dirty gas industry. 

With the upcoming Federal Budget, right now is a crucial moment in the fight for climate action, – Can you chip in $12 to help us rapidly scale up our grassroots organising in order to counter the Government’s vested interests?

Together, we can ensure the Morrison Government doesn’t trade away our futures for corporate profits.

Right now, our public money should be used to create the solutions to the climate crisis that we want to see, that will actually serve our communities– not spending millions of public dollars propping up the greedy gas industry.

At a time when other countries are increasingly ramping up their climate ambitions, Australia is yet to commit to a net-zero emissions timeline [2]. 

So, on Thursday 29 April we’re coming together for a national day of action ahead of the budget, with creative stunts, storytelling, and banners to ensure our message is clear – Fund our future not gas

By raising our voices through collective action, we can harness media attention and public energy to make sure our message is seen far and wide and heard loud and clear. Our communities will not stand for public money going to dirty gas projects that risk our climate and our futures

Actions in Adelaide:

Adelaide – The RiverBank Bridge –  Thursday April 29 @ 11:00am RSVP HERE (AYCC)

Adelaide – Rex Patrick/SA Senator – 31 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide, April 30 @ 12:30pm (350 Aus) RSVP HERE

[1] Scott Morrison signs $1bn deal to shore up energy reliability in South Australia, The Guardian, April 2021

[2] ‘No action on anything’: Australia increasingly isolated as US and others ramp up climate ambition, The Guardian, April 2021