TWO nominated sites near Kimba will proceed to phase two in the search for a location for a national radioactive waste management facility.
Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matthew Canavan said the decision was driven by “broad support” in the community, after a postal ballot showed 56.7 per cent of respondents were in favour of moving through to the second stage.
In the ballot, facilitated by Kimba District Council and administered by the Australian Electoral Commission, 698 residents of 793 responded, with 396 in favour of continuing the process and 294 voting no.
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science community consultation showed all but one direct neighbour to the proposed sites were in favour of the proposal.
As part of phase two, Kimba will receive a $2-million community benefit package to fund the employment of a local community liaison officer, create a Kimba consultative committee and expand the local project office to allow representatives to answer locals’ questions.
Mr Canavan said a central site was needed to consolidate more than 100 present storage sites into one single, safe, national facility to store the radioactive waste created by nuclear medicine.
“Progression to phase two does not constitute a final decision, rather we know that across the community there is broad support for continuing this conversation and that is what we will do,” he said.
No Radioactive Waste on Agricultural Land in Kimba or SA committee member and Kimba farmer Tom Harris said the minister’s decision was disappointing.
He believed the results were too close to be considered broad support.
“We are still a split community – how this is considered a consensus is beyond me,” he said.
Mr Harris said the vote question, which asked if they supported a nomination being further considered in phase two, was “badly” phrased.
“The question should have been ‘do you want a waste deposit in town?’,” he said.
Mr Harris said many voters may have been swayed by the promise of an additional $2m for the town, just from moving into phase two, but might not have wanted the waste facility itself.
“We’ve had this issue in Kimba for 2.5 years and this means it’s at least another 12 months,” he said.
Buckleboo farmers father and son Jeff and Andrew Baldock, who own one of the two nuclear sites nominated, say phase two will allow the community the chance to have a discussion with all the facts.
“This gives us the opportunity to sit down and work through some of the concerns and see if we can come to a positive outcome,” Andrew said. “It is hard for the community to make a decision until we go to the next stage.”
Jeff said the site had the potential to bring a number of direct and indirect jobs to the town, while the results of the vote showed that more of the community would be disappointed if the process did not proceed.
Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey said the vote had a good turnout rate and was a robust way of establishing the community’s opinion.
He said this, along with factors such as the support of neighbours for the site, were taken into consideration when looking at the decision to move to stage two.
Phase two consultation still continues at the Wallerberdina Station site near Hawker, with a heritage assessment, technical studies and community consultation ongoing.