On July 18 2023 the Federal Court of Australia through Her Honour Justice Charlesworth, handed down a decision which was favourable to the applicant the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation. This has resulted in the quashing of the decision to place the waste dump site at Napandee near Kimba.
The Barngarla people have always opposed a nuclear facility being built on their country. Barngarla people have fought against the proposal in the courts and expressed their position through rallies, protests, public meetings, and the media. The Barngarla have a determined Native Title area covering parts of the Eyre Peninsula and including Kimba.
A community ballot was conducted by the Kimba District Council in November 2019. Of 734 formal votes, 452 were Yes (61.6%) and 282 No (38.4%). However the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation (BDAC), which represents Barngarla Native Title holders, was excluded from the Kimba ballot.
BDAC engaged the Australian Election Company, an independent ballot agent, to conduct a confidential postal ballot of BDAC members. The ballot paper asked members: Do you support the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility being located at one of the nominated sites in the community of Kimba? Of 209 eligible voters (all of whom are Barngarla native title holders), 83 cast valid “No” votes. Zero “Yes” votes were returned.
This unanimous “No” vote demonstrates that there is absolutely no support at all within the Barngarla community for the nuclear waste facility.
Kimba is a farming community and one of the many objections to the site is that the National Health and Medical Research Council’s ‘Code of Practice for Near-Surface Disposal of Radioactive Waste in Australia’ states that “the site for the facility should be located in a region which has no known significant natural resources, including potentially valuable mineral deposits, and which has little or no potential for agriculture or outdoor recreational use”.
Kimba is a farming community and one of the many objections to the site is that the National Health and Medical Research Council’s ‘Code of Practice for Near-Surface Disposal of Radioactive Waste in Australia’ states that “the site for the facility should be located in a region which has no known significant natural resources, including potentially valuable mineral deposits, and which has little or no potential for agriculture or outdoor recreational use”.
The proposed nuclear dump is illegal under the SA Nuclear Waste Storage (Prohibition) Act 2000, but successive state and federal governments are willing to ignore or override legislation which was enacted to “protect the health, safety and welfare of the people of South Australia and to protect the environment in which they live.”
In 2019 the District Council of Kimba held a community ballot to determine the level of community support for the dump. However the ballot excluded Barngarla Traditional Owners, and was held within boundaries which excluded many people with a legitimate interest in the vote.
In a further dump on democracy, the federal government also tried to amend legislation to prevent a judicial challenge to the nomination of the site.
