3CR
 Community Radio 855am

THE RADIO-ACTIVE SHOW

With Eric Miller, Ila Marks and Cherrie

Saturday at 10.00 am

4th September 1999

ConRadSat 18.04 - 18.32 (Thursday 9th September)

Cherrie: Hello and Welcome to the Radioactive Show brought to you by the Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service. My name is Cherrie and with me in the studio is Eric Miller. The Radioactive Show is a weekly program bringing you news and information on nuclear, peace and energy issues.

Today we hear that food irradiation is again on the nuclear menu here in Australia, we also find out what's happening with uranium mining in Western Australia. But we begin the show at the Shut Down North Blockade on the 1st of September. September the 1st was the anniversary of the conviction for trespass of Yvonne Margarula, senior traditional owner of Jabiluka. She was convicted for walking on her own country. Eric was up bright and early and made it down to North Ltd in St Kilda Road Melbourne by 6.00 o'clock in the morning to hear the supporting toots from motorists on their way to work. He brought back this report.

Protester One from the blockade: So folks we all know why we are here today. Yvonne Margarula was found guilty of trespass for walking on her own land one year ago today. One comment they made was, "we are not even allowed to walk on our own land, are they going to tell us what to think on our own land as well". Well ladies and gentlemen we are here once again today to blockade North. To try and stop their business as usual and I think that we have got a pretty good chance of it.

I would also like to say once again we should all feel very proud to be here. You are prepared to get off your backsides to do something. There are a lot of people out there in suburbia you don't actually get off their backside and do anything sitting round winging getting depressed. So I hope you feel good about being here, because we really have got the moral majority, it is really immoral to mine uranium in Kakadu against the wishes of the traditional owners.

So lets have a little thought about if we're going to go around and take up our positions around the two side lanes. I think we have got enough people to do it now. And there are more showing up all the time we can direct them down. OK, so what sorts of ideas has anyone got about starting up with our blockading.

Protester Two from Blockade: Lets do it.

Protester Three: People ask what the purpose is of blockading. The simple thing is … to . shut 'down North business as usual'. This a company that, despite the highest scientific knowledge in the world, despite the unequivocal opposition of the Aboriginal People and the opposition of 67% of Australians is going full steam ahead with a uranium mine development in Kakadu National Park. So we think that the least think the least they deserve is to have their business shut down for one day.

What we've talked about in the Jabiluka Action Group in terms of the Blockade is that if possible we want a total Blockade if we've got the numbers. A total Blockade in front of the police lines. That means nothing comes in at any of the entrance points we can cover. Now that does depend on the people that turn up. But that is the objective we are going for.

Protester One: My proposal would be that we send three groups out of here. Eight or so to at least start up a group to the north end of the lane, the south end of Queens Lane and around the back on Queens Road. But there is probably a little bit a business we should attend to before we go people might have noticed there are some vegie burgers cooking over there, the people who stay around the front will be reasonably well fed. But we need to get people around the front to bring vegie burgers to the other blockaders. It is important that people are fed …

We have a bunch of leaflets we can give to people. This one the pale green leaflet, if I could just get someone to pass them around and then you can give them to people. …. These are 'Police and Your Rights' leaflets …. People may have already heard that there's a very large number of police horses, there is the Special Operations Group or the Tactical Response Group. …. And a very large number of police, so it looks as though they're pretty serious about what they are doing. We've got legal advise on hand at the moment in the form of a mobile phone ….. from one of the legal services will be turning up at 7.00 am and he will be doing the rounds of the Blockade and answering questions in terms of what your legal rights are and stuff. We do have legal advice if things get heavy. The other set of leaflets we've got …. every group of people should grab an enormous wad of these ….. the bags that I've got at my feet explain why we are blockading North. And basically go over the many problems with the Jabiluka uranium mine, and go over the Aboriginal rights and so on. We want to give those to every one that approaches the line. Every one that passes by, people that turn up for the first time…..

Protester four: May be a few protesters to go down the south end ……

Singing

"Hey, North, you're running out of time,
You're never going to get your Jabiluka mine.

Hey, North, you're running out of time,
You're never going to get your Jabiluka mine.

Hey, North, you're running out of time,
You're never going to get your Jabiluka mine."

Protester three: We need some one to negotiate with cars

Singing

"I like the flowers
I like the vegetables,
But I don't like uranium
And all its evil
I want to live in a nuclear free society
No uranium, no uranium,
No uranium, no uranium"

Cherrie: The police were using more force as time went on.

Protester: We've got a hell of a lot of cops and horses, we've been pushed off the road twice, so that's just a quick report back.

Chant

"The people united will never be defeated
The people united will never be defeated
The people united will never be defeated …."

(Scuffling noises)

Protesters We have the right to demonstrate, this is not a police state, We have the right to demonstrate, this is not a police state, We have the right to demonstrate, this is not a police state …..

Protester: That is extreme force. What are you doing?

Protester: Please take note of the officers names that are using extreme force, and write them down …… this is absolutely ridiculous, now link arms. …. Stay calm, we're not going to treat them like they treat us, we're peaceful demonstrators. I know its difficult, but please remember to link arms …. Linked arms cannot throw punches …. So hold arms and stay calm and just remember why we're here. Today is the anniversary of Yvonne Margarula being convicted for arrest on her own land. She was peacefully walking on her own land. Yes, it's a disgrace and we are here standing strong for the Mirrar people to remember that. Every one take a deep breath.

Singing

Cherrie: The blockaders tried to calm the police down, but they kept the violence up. The police had control of the situation, but still continued to use brute force to get the blockaders off the road. People were getting hurt and one person was taken to hospital.

Singing

(The noise from the hooves of the police horses)

Protester: We put up a couple of really strong lines, both at the car park and at this entrance over here, the coppers have been pushing us from the front and from the back. When people have just been standing there…. I think that it is absolutely essential that we keep blockading, keep standing strong and next time the more people we can get down here the better. So they are not all in there yet.….

Chant

"No mine in Kakadu Park

We don't want our kids glowing in the dark

No mine in Kakadu Park

We don't want our kids glowing in the dark

No mine in Kakadu Park

We don't want our kids glowing in the dark …."

Protester: There is another car coming through coming through … link arms, link arms …..

Singing

"Jabiluka, Jabiluka,

Sacred land, sacred land,

We don't want uranium, we don't want uranium,

Shut North down, shut North down.

Jabiluka, Jabiluka,

Sacred land, sacred land,

We don't want uranium, we don't want uranium,

Shut North down, shut North down……"

Protester: OK, I just want to give an up date on what's happening around the side street there. That back entrance of Queens Land is actually a one way street going that way, so actually they are coming in the wrong way. Now there was a picket line there, they blockaded a car from getting through, somehow I didn't see this happen myself, a person got thrown under the car, the police then dragged him off by his hair, ripping off his name tag first, and he couldn't be identified. We have witnesses, we have taken photos, because the policeman refused to give his name and rank which they are supposed to do. So around the side there, there is blocking of the Wilson Car Park as well to prevent as well to -prevent North workers getting in and the police are using over excessively force. It's worse than anything I've seen before. OK so we are stopping cars from getting through if we can get to the cars before the cops can ……

Singing

Cherrie: This is the Radioactive Show and we're listening to a report of the Blockade at North Ltd that started at 6.00 in the morning on the 1st of September. By 9.30 the blockaders stopped and headed around to the front of the building for a meeting.

Protester: A press conference and then a bit of a meeting about what we are doing from here. We are waiting for the people from the other side and the South side to come round and join us. If anyone here witnessed or saw, in fact suffered any police violence on the demonstration today could you come forward now …. Because I just personally witnessed it ….and we want to make sure that the media get the full information. We spent quite a lot of time at the beginning of the week handing out information and informing people of what was going on. So every one here should know … that every one in this area knew that our intention was to blockade the front and back entrances of North. There was a particular media release about this OK. So the police drew unnecessary irrelevant lines of their own blockade of the area forcing us to go outside North and confront other people we don't have a concern with. It was not us, it's the police doing that. And the people in the area know that and they are not happy about that.

Another Protester: ….we're out here rather than not blockading for a couple of reasons, the first reason is because numbers, like quite a few of our people were getting pretty seriously crunched. And that was obviously only going to increase. The police violence was not going to decrease at all, and would probably going to increase as our number fell as people obviously have to go to work and school and that. So that's the first reason.

Reason number two is because we're informed by the police, although weather it is bull shit or not is another story. We're informed by the police business as usual at North Ltd consisted of a few employees slipping through between 5 and 6 in the morning in order to avoid the blockade.

Having said that, I'm sure other people have got something to say. Any one else want to chip in?

Protester: At the North end we had a situation where we were pushed up against some actual blocking barriers on one side behind where there were …. some police men standing pushing towards and in the front were five horses pushing back ….we couldn't move if we wanted to …. out of the way. We told a car what was happening and they agreed to turn around, but of course no one was to know this because … so soon the police were pushing us away and pulling us further away and very time it happened it got more violent and less necessary. To the degree where even if we were onto the edges of the road they would still be pushing.

Another Protester: It's been North's claim all along that they can afford to ignore protests. Their share price tells a different story. A couple of times straight after a determined sort of action like this the North share prices have firmly hit the floor. A company that makes money out of locking up women so they can mine uranium in a National Park. That company ain't operating as normal today. Thank you

Cherrie: Blockaders at the Shut Down North Ltd Blockade on the 1st of September. There were no arrests.

Last week on the Radioactive show we spoke to Robin Chapple from the Anti-Uranium Collation in Western Australia. He told us about the company Pangea and its plans for an international high level waste dump here in Australia. This week we catch up with him again and ask him about uranium mine proposals in WA.

Eric Miller: There's eleven proposed uranium mines in Western Australia?

Robin Chapple: Well there are actually many more on the drawing board. There are about 26. But Colin Barnett the Minister for Resource Development has indicated he sees seven going relatively quickly, one or two going in the next few years. And has identified through his department eleven which they are fostering as proposals.

Eric Miller: the one near Onslow, Manyingee, they have started drilling on that site?

Robin Chapple: Yes certainly there is quite significantly quite an amount of work going on near Onslow at the Manyingee location. The company has indicated that by, well within a very short space of time they will be submitting on EIS, or applying for EIS guidelines with both the federal and state governments.

Eric Miller: Right, there is a connection there, the state government has said they should accept the waste back?

Robin Chapple: Well the issue there is Colin Barnett the Minister has said, "once we start exporting uranium then we need to discuss" to quote his terms the moral obligation of whether we should take waste or not. So he is leaving it fairly open.

Cherrie: That was Robin Chapple from the Anti-Uranium Collation in Western Australia. The Manyingee deposit he was telling us about is hoping to use in situ leaching, the same process as the Beverley mine in South Australia. Another in situ mine in South Australia is at Honeymoon. At Honeymoon they have a pilot plant operating, but they keep putting back the release of their Environment Impact Study. At the moment the company are saying it should be out in another month.

Irradiating food makes as much sense as using a nuclear reactor to boil water for a cuppa. But its back on the table. In 1987 there was a moratorium on irradiating food, This occurred after a concerted effort by anti nuclear activists and foodies. Eric Miller speaks to Daniel Voronoff from Friends of the Earth, Fitzroy in Melbourne to find out the latest on food irradiation.

Eric Miller: I believe that there is a campaign in from the past that has snuck back in called Food irradiation. What's been going on with food irradiation?

Daniel Voronoff: Well up until 1987 there was a very concerted and very successful campaign to prevent food irradiation. Out of that successful campaign resulted in a moratorium on the business of irradiating food products. That has been in effect until early August and people will be aware that there has been a very high profile issue in the form of genetic modification and the labelling of modified foods. The Australian New Zealand Food Authority declared that there would be labelling on genetically modified food, but at the same time as making those recommendations and putting those codes into effect they passed the provisions for the irradiation of food. They snuck that in without giving any notice to any stakeholders or any campaigners that have been involved in the past. So basically Australians are faced with the possibility that their food may be irradiated.

Eric Miller: So what is the process for food to be irradiated in Australia.

Daniel Voronoff: It is at its fairly early stages. At the moment they are still developing the codes of practice. But apparently foods have to be labelled, which is beneficial, but not entirely the best situation. The best situation is that we don't have irradiated food from the beginning.

But as yet there hasn't been any businesses that have nominated themselves for setting up a facility to irradiate food. So we are keeping tabs on that. Nor has any one come forward and said yeah, we want our food to be irradiated so we can export it or send it around. So basically we have to keep tabs on anyone who wants to license facilities or foods for food irradiation and there is provision for public in put into that process. We will be keeping in touch with that and letting people know.

Cherrie: That was Daniel Voronoff from Friends of the Earth Fitzroy in Melbourne. You can contact Daniel on 039 4198700.

Eric Miller: and news this week Cherrie, on the 1st of September there was a landmark ruling on genocide here in Australia. A number of Aboriginal groups had cases up on genocide. One was Kevin Buzzacott, who is an Arabunna person and who is camped out on Stewart Creek Station at this time. He's claiming that WMC and the federal government has caused genocide to his people over their policies. The judges ruled that there was no statutory legislation against genocide in Australia so it is not against genocide in Australia because there is no law about it. And even if there was, the people Kevin went up against, the Prime Minister, the Environment Minister and Hugh Morgan the Executive Officer of Western Mining Corporation their actions were considered not to be causing genocide. What they were doing was not trying to cause genocide to the Aboriginal people. The Case was put out through out Australia by the Federal Court. The case was heard in Sydney but you could go down and see the ruling in every capital city. And if you want more information on this ruling and on this court case you can get it on the web on www.aboriginalgenocide.com.au So that was a landmark ruling in Australia.

And the other thing is .. the plutonium shipment, the MOX shipment that is coming from Britain and France and going to Japan is well within the Australian exclusive economic zone and on the 28th of August the Australian government had to have an emergency medical evacuation from one of those ships. They evacuated one of the seamen because he needed medical services. If anything happens to these ships they're in the Australian economic zone and Australia has to provide assistance. Are we in a position where we could deal with a fire on a plutonium shipment. I don't think so. That's the news this week Cherrie.

Cherrie: Well, that’s all from the Radioactive Show now being heard on the Community Radio Satellite Network. The Radioactive Show is produced in studios of 3CR. You are able to e-mail us if you have an issue you want raised or any comments about the programs, you will find us at ra3cr@hotmail.com And of course our web address www.sea-us.org.au

And you can read transcripts of the show at that address.

Transcript produced by Ila Marks - with much thanks!!!
Page last updated September 25, 1999.
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