3CR
 Community Radio 855am

THE RADIO-ACTIVE SHOW

With Eric Miller and Linda Marks

Saturday at 10.00am

31st October 1998

Good morning, this is the Radio-Active Show brought to you by the Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service. I'm Linda Marks and with me in the studio is Eric Miller. (Good Morning). The Radio-Active Show is a weekly program bringing you news and information on Nuclear, Peace and Energy issues.

This week is listener sponsor week so if you're listening to the show and you're not a listener sponsor yet, now's the time to ring the station on 9419 8377.

Eric: And, where would the whole Anti-Uranium campaign be without 3CR, without all the shows that promote the alternative, and where would all your information come from. It's imperative that we keep 3CR on line and we need your support and we need you to be a listener sponsor. Ring up now.

Linda: And the number again is 9419 8377

And, now to today's show. We hear how the Jabiluka campaign is truly international, also this week, Eric went along to a mining industry conference, and we'll hear all about that.

This week, UNESCO, (the United Nations Environment, Science and Cultural Organization), delegation is in Australia and they're considering placing Kakadu National Park on the World Heritage in danger list, because it is threatened by the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine. The World Heritage delegation has visited Kakadu with the Mirrar and Environment groups, and they've also met with scientists from the Office of the Supervising Scientists, from representatives from ERA, from the Northern Territory and Federal governments, and today they meet with representatives from the UN in Australia. And they've been flooded with letters from concerned people for Kakadu from all over the world.

On the International front, on the 20th of October there was another International Day of Action. Here's Dave Sweeney from the ACF speaking to blockaders outside North Ltd last week. Dave is speaking about the International Day of Action.

Dave Sweeney: In Japan they delivered a petition and a letter of opposition and concern to Japan's biggest importer of Energy Resources Australia's uranium. In Spain they presented a letter of objection and opposition to the Australian High Commission and to the Australian Ambassador in Madrid. And in Germany, in Cologne, they gathered outside the Cologne Cathedral in the centre of town. It's 750 years old and two years ago it was listed as World Heritage. Irrespective of your belief or your faith or otherwise, to the people in Cologne that Cathedral is a matter of great pride and a matter of great significance and in many ways is a defining part of that city. The people stood outside it, they ringed it and they said 'What this is to Cologne, Kakadu is to the Mirrar and to Australia. Would we mine this?' The resounding answer from the people of Cologne was 'Absolutely No'.

We've got a government in Australia that has failed to take leadership and to take the hard decisions. But it's not a hard decision to say 'No' to Jabiluka. We've got a government that so far has preferred to put its ideological mates before its responsibilities of a duty of care to the Australian people and the Australian environment.

So we're taking this campaign further, simply because it's not an issue for the Northern Territory, or indeed just an issue for Australia. Every bit of Ranger uranium, and should Jabiluka be proceeded with, every bit of Jabiluka uranium goes overseas and becomes someone else's cancer, someone else's Chernobyl, someone else's Gorlieben, someone else's waste. And it starts with us. So we've got a responsibility to stop it here so we're taking the campaign internationally. That's starting, it's starting in a big way.

On November 5th, in Salzburg, Austria, half a world away, Yvonne Margarula, the senior traditional owner of the Mirrar, receives the first Nuclear Free Future award. It is a UN award, an international award, for her resistance to the Jabiluka mine. And I repeat that particularly to the police here today, for her resistance to the Jabiluka mine she is getting an international award in a country half a world away.

This is not a ragbag's exercise, this is not a marginal exercise, this is just two thirds of Australia, and a growing number of the world. They see that their radio-active problems start at Kakadu. In Germany, they say that Gorlieben, their national waste dump that is hated and opposed by farmers and everyone around, they say that Gorlieben begins at Kakadu. And Yvonne is standing up and saying 'No' and we are standing beside her and so are people all around this country and so are people all around this planet. That is important and that is strong and that will carry the day.

So from the North action, to the North AGM, to everything you do in between, having dinner with your friends to having discussions in the front bar, to chalking on the streets to writing articles in your papers, to whatever. Everything we do every day, we do to build up this campaign to ensure that this mine that would be a great environmental and ethical travesty does not go ahead. So thanks for your energy, and continue it and keep it happening. Good on you.

Linda: That's Dave Sweeney outside North Ltd last week telling protesters that opposition to the Jabiluka mine is coming from all around the world. And we here at the Radio-Active Show would also like to send our congratulations to Yvonne Margarula for the Nuclear Free Future award.

On the company front, not all is rosy in ERA, here's Dave again, speaking on an internal staff survey that was leaked. The survey found that there'd been an increase of 50% in staff changeover and that 50% of the workers say that they don't trust the company, in the last year.

Chanting: Hey North, you're running out of time you're never gunna get your Jabiluka mine...

Dave Sweeney: It's not just two thirds of Australian people that in the survey conducted by Newspol who don't like it. It's not just the traditional Aboriginal owners from the area who don't like it. 50+% of their own workers in a leaked internal survey conducted earlier in the year said that they distrust the company, and over half of their workers at the Ranger uranium mine and at the Jabiluka uranium site, have said that in Energy Resources of Australia, honesty is a career limitation ..... Honesty has not been a career limitation to the management of North and honesty has not been a career limitation to Energy Resources of Australia.

Now, it's a matter of obvious great concern when people, even the majority of their own workers don't like them, don't trust them, don't think they're genuine. So, the company is on the back foot. They continue to perpetuate the greatest fiction in this whole campaign, that at the moment they have approval to move uranium at Jabiluka. What has happened is that the traditional owners of the area, who don't want to see the mine go ahead, have said you can't mill your stuff at Ranger where they already have a uranium mill. If that is the case, and it is the case, under law, and our legal advice is that it is rock solid, and the traditional owners have said that they are rock solid. Potters, the leading financial analysts, said just last week that it will cost them 150 million bucks to build a mill at Jabiluka. It will cost them more than what they've spent to date for a product that's currently travelling at $10.60 a pound. It costs them about $22 a pound to produce.

So irony of ironies, it's a disgrace. Not only are this mob bulldozing Aboriginal People and the majority of the community. They are despised by their workers, and they are ripping the guts out of Kakadu with radio-active waste for 250,000 years, but it's costing us, it's costing us as a community to do it. It is not just wrong, unethical, ecologically stupid, it is also economical diabolically dumb. It is indeed a GST, it is Australia's Grossly Stupid Thing. The industry's own peak body, a group called the Uranium Institute in London, ten days ago gave out a report. And this report... They're a bunch of pro-nuclear people. The Uranium Institute loves uranium, loves nuclear power, loves talking about burying waste in different places, so long as it's not near them. They are pro-nuclear and they came out with a report and said that uranium supply will outstrip demand for at least the next two decades. There is one way that the nuclear industry internationally is going and that is down the gurgler. There's no doubt whatsoever about that.

The only reason that Energy Resources Australia can continue is because this mob, who have a corporate arm called North Finance Ltd, and then in brackets Bermuda, continue to offer them a line of credit. $40 million Australian recently just to bail them out cost overruns and project overruns.

So let's look at it. They're not approved by the traditional owners. Their costs are blowing out every day. It's increasingly unpopular. They were hoping that after the election we'd all lose heart. They've made a big miscalculation there. It's just one more miscalculation along the road of miscalculations that they've made. They've got a product whose price is falling and the cost of extraction and processing is increasing. Their share price has dropped 60% in 30 months. Their staff turnover has increased 50 % in 12 months. Half of their workers think they stink, and two thirds of the Australian community stand up and agree with them.

I think it's fantastic that we're here today, I think that it's fantastic that we'll be here and other places again in the months to come. I think we have every very real possibility of stopping the Jabiluka mine and I believe we have absolutely every responsibility for stopping the Jabiluka mine. Thanks very much.

Linda: That was Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation speaking outside North Ltd on the 21st of this month.

Music from ZIP:

Uranium

My cranium can't comprehend the fact

Of the way and the degree in which this land has been attacked

Contact, settlement

No it was invasion

Ask the Mirrar people of our reconciliation

It isn't about colour

It's about who has the power

It's poisoning this land

Do not sit back and just allow it

The government compassionate just like a bit bazooka

So are you gunna let them mine Jabiluka

No way, no way, no way, no way

No way, some people say, it's too big

This government can stop it but, they're just a bunch of pigs

Well, yes to the second, but no to the first

None but ourselves can free our minds

So burst out of our cages

Out of our aviary

Emancipate ourselves from mental slavery

From little things, big things grow

Get your inspiration from all over the show

From music, people, love, from land

Take a deep breath and take a strong stand

Against tweedle dumber and tweedle dee

Both the coalition and the ALP

ERA, they'll kill the brolga

They'll kill the melaleuca

So are we gunna let them mine Jabiluka

No way, no way

Are you gunna let them get away

No way, no way, no way, no way

You see 'cos there's one other plan

Mirrar control for Mirrar land

Linda: And that was Zip singing "No Way" at the gate to the Jabiluka mine site earlier this year.

This week the Minerals Council of Australia's annual environment conference was held in Melbourne's Hilton Hotel. On Thursday morning the conference was addressed by three senior people in ERA. The international guest speaker for the conference was Dr. Sandman from the US speaking on how to handle environmental 'Outrage' because of environmental damage or human rights abuses. Here's Jerome Small from the Jabiluka Action Group speaking to protesters outside the Hilton on Thursday morning.

Protesters: Hey North, you're running out of time, you're never gunna get your Jabiluka mine...

Jerome Small: We have the first layer of 'Outrage Management' here in the blue, we have the second layer of 'Outrage Management' in the green behind, and various others from the minerals council, again involved in the business of 'Outrage Management'. And there's a bit of 'Outrage Management' going on there. There's someone being expelled from the conference, presumably because she didn't have a $1075 to fork out to listen to a bunch of people trying to prove their green credentials while simultaneously listening to the people who are digging the heart out of Australia's biggest national park.

This conference is hosted by the Minerals Council of Australia. As you're probably aware, the Minerals Council of Australia is one of the peak lobby groups of the mining industry in this country. This once a year gabfest is their opportunity to get together, slap each other on the back, buy each other a few highly expensive imported beers, and say how green we are.

The conference is being addressed by, amongst others, Dr. Sandman PhD who's come all the way from the United States. Very selflessly he's flown himself here and he's only charging $600 a pop for people to have access to his knowledge. Dr. Sandman's area of speciality is 'Outrage Management' of course. According to the conference blurb, Dr. Sandman has helped his clients through a wide range of public controversies that threatened corporate or government reputations from oil spills to labour management battles, from ecoli contamination to the siting of hazardous waste facilities. So if you want to look a bit better, you call Dr. Sandman.

You can even buy some computer software, some patented computer software produced by Dr. Sandman and a company called 'Quest Computing' here in Melbourne. You can plug in all of us crew, you can plug in the various 'Outrage Managers' here and it can tell you how the equation turns out.

The other side of the equation is of course 'Hazard'. 'Hazard' is completely different from 'Outrage', Dr. Sandman explains. The actual damage that you cause to the environment has very little to do with the amount of 'Outrage' that seems to go along with it. Whether an event, according to Dr. Sandman in the conference program, whether an event hurts people or harms the environment, 'Hazard' has little to with whether it upsets people. Session one of Dr. Sandman's conference will outline the 'Hazard' versus 'Outrage' distinction, and describe the 12 principal components of 'Outrage'. I wonder if we can list the 12 principal components of 'Outrage'. One might be 20 million tonnes of radio-active waste in a national park.

But the point of being here is to test out their 'Outrage Management' technology, and all of these professional 'Outrage' managers here. There's no point in them turning up if we don't turn up. And so, in order to keep them in a job, we've decided to grace the conference with our presence here today.

The point for people walking past is that Kakadu National Park is being dug up for a uranium mine. The land of the Mirrar People is being dug up for a uranium mine. And even though they legally own the land, even though these Aboriginal People up in Kakadu don't want a uranium mine to proceed, the people speaking at this conference here today, Energy Resources of Australia and North Ltd. have basically said 'Stuff you,' to the Aboriginal People. They've said, 'Stuff you,' to the Australian People, 67% of whom don't want uranium mining in our biggest national park. They've said 'Stuff you', to the lot of it and then employed people like Dr. Sandman to try and manage the 'Outrage' that results. And the point is, no matter what their fancy pants computer software says, no matter how much they pay for their various green washing conferences and so on, we're not some blip on a computer screen. 67% of the people of Australia aren't some blip on the computer screen that Dr. Sandman can just eliminate with his 'Outrage Management' software.

We're going to keep coming back, we keep saying it and we're going to keep doing it. We're going to keep coming back in greater and greater numbers and putting it on them and saying, 'If you don't stop Jabiluka mine, if you don't stop digging up Mirrar land, if you don't stop dumping radio-active waste in Kakadu National Park. Well it's not going to be business as usual.' You're going to have to have your conferences lined with coppers and lined with security. You're going to have to get your workers to turn up to work at 5 in the morning because there's protesters outside the building,. You're going to have to shift your Annual General Meeting to Sydney to try and avoid us. You're going to have to schedule your shareholding information meetings for probably the slowest working day of the year, the day before Cup Day. You're going to have to yourself buck yourself up as a company. You're going to have to see your share price plummet through the floor, it's only a $1.80 at the moment, ERA. You're going to have to do all this and eventually you're going to decide because of us it's just not worth the hassle because we're going to keep at it longer than you.

Fiona: As police liaison person I have to say something. The police have informed us that they would like us to move out into the barrier that they have created out there. That's for reasons of safety with the taxis coming through like this. So, it's up to us, what do we want to do?

Jerome Small: Obviously the police have set this 'Outrage Management' system out here to accommodate us. Would we rather be in the 'Outrage Management' sector, or would we rather be here having our 'Outrage' managed?

Protesters: Here!

Jerome Small: Anyone want to go to the 'Outrage Management' zone on the street there?

Protesters: No!

Jerome Small: OK. It looks like they're going to have to manage our 'Outrage' here and the outrageous 10 kilometres an hour taxis as well. We'll watch out for them. I think the main problem is what you're going to have is with this fire brand dog here. It obviously wants to throw itself under a taxi in protest about what's in this conference and the hypocrisy of the Minerals Council of Australia whose own ethical code, its own environmental code, says '...that therefore sustainable development', their own code says '...that therefore proceeding in partnership with the community'. They're quotes from the code. Well there's nothing sustainable about digging the heart out of Kakadu National Park and bunging 20 million tonnes of toxic radioactive waste in the middle of it. There's nothing particularly about partnership in the way that they've treated the Aboriginal community of the Mirrar people up there, in fact they've ridden roughshod all over them.

Linda: That was Jerome Small having a bit of fun with 'Outrage' as well as talking about a pretty deadly serious issue and Fiona acting as police liaison at the Mineral Council of Australia's annual environment conference at the Hilton this week.

Ring up now if you're not a listener sponsor yet. Ring up now on 9419 8377.

Eric: Yesterday North had its Annual General Meeting up in Sydney. As you heard, they had to move it to Sydney because the Melbourne 'Outrage' crowd was too hard to manage. Up there, 40 people went into the AGM and we'll hear more about that in weeks to come on the Radio-Active Show. There was a demonstration outside. They're having the Melbourne meeting on Monday morning at the Arts Centre and people are going to be at that too. That's at 10.30am at the Arts Centre on Monday.

The World Heritage Commission was out here this week and they have been visiting people around Australia, environmentalists and the Mirrar People. That visit seems to have gone really well. The case with the Mirrar People is rock solid. While they were having a look at some sacred sites in the Jabiluka mining lease area ERA was carrying out detonations and the commissioners could feel the vibrations through their feet. It seemed like ERA didn't even have the sense to stop blasting while they were there.

Linda:

What's On:

1. Rally Against Jabiluka. Assemble at the State Library lawns, 1pm on Sunday 1st November.

2. Sleepover in the Queen Victoria Gardens opposite the Art Centre Sunday night and greet the North Ltd Shareholders Information Meeting on Monday 2nd November at 10am.

3. Uranium Forum 4 - 5 December. Ring Friends of the Earth on 9419 8700 for details.

4. ADTEC (Australian Defence Technology Expo and Convention) '98 being held at the RAAF Base Edinburgh in Adelaide, Sunday November 8th - Tuesday November 10th. Ring the Jabiluka Action Group in Adelaide for billets and information.

5. Going Solar Fair on the weekend 14 -15th November in Daylesford.

Eric Miller: And that's all we have time for the Radio-Active Show this week Linda, so it's goodbye from Eric

Linda Marks: And goodbye from Linda.

Transcript produced by Linda Marks - with much thanks!!!
Page last updated November 7, 1998.
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