By Sarah Peart
The Federal Court's decision on February 11 to reject the legal challenge by a senior traditional owner of the Mirrar people, Yvonne Margarula, makes a stepped-up public campaign against the Jabiluka uranium mine more urgent.
The national day of action against the uranium mine has been rescheduled for April 5, following a national phone link-up of anti-uranium activists. Other actions have been scheduled for March 21 to highlight the start of the blockade of the mine site in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.
The traditional owners of the land, the Mirrar Gundjehmi, challenged the validity of Energy Resources Australia (ERA's) mineral licence. Under the Atomic Energy Act and the Northern Territory Self-Government Act, export licences for uranium can be approved only by the commonwealth. The Jabiluka mineral lease was illegally granted by the NT government, the Mirrar people argued.
The Mirrar are unequivocally opposed to the mine. They do not want a share of the royalties of the $4.5 billion project. David Bradbury's film Jabiluka shows how the Mirrar people were forced into signing the lease for the Ranger uranium mine in 1979.
The Northern Lands Council (NLC) negotiated the agreement on Ranger on behalf of the traditional owners. While it was clear the traditional owners opposed the mine, they were told that if they didn't give approval, the Lands Rights Act would be dismantled.
Approval for the Jabiluka mine followed a similar path, the NLC negotiating with Pancontinental, the leaseholder before ERA, and signing an agreement in 1982.
Whilst many promises have been made to the Mirrar people about the so-called benefits of mining — such as increased money for schooling, housing and health services and employment opportunities — the negative effects of uranium mining on the Mirrar over the past 20 years are obvious. The majority of the community remain unemployed. Educational and health services are minimal. This is not to mention the environmental impact of uranium mining.
ERA has a poor environmental record. Two years ago, it wanted to release 500,000 cubic metres of highly contaminated water from the Ranger uranium mine because it had failed to calculate the output of contaminated water over the life of the mine.
In January 1997, ERA was caught dumping contaminated water directly into nearby Magela Creek. The Australian Conservation Foundation has recorded 96 accidental or deliberate releases of material from Ranger and infringements of environmental requirements.
"ERA cannot deliver on environmental safety. This has been shown time and time again", Tony Iltis, an anti-uranium activist from Hobart, told Green Left Weekly. "There is absolutely no doubt that uranium mining is unsafe. The tailings from uranium cause lung cancer, leukaemia, birth defects and other health problems. Even after 300 years, the tailings retain 99% of their radioactivity.
"Adding to the dangers is the fact that the proposed Jabiluka mine is located near major wetlands, which means a road needs to be built, increasing the risks, in the event of a spillage, to dangerous proportions."
ERA chief executive Phil Shirvington said that the Federal Court decision meant the company could now proceed with mining.
Even if there is a federal election this year, tactics that rely on a federal Labor government rejecting the mine are fundamentally flawed.
According to the ALP's present policy, which is opposition to any new mines rather than opposition to uranium mining in general, it could not prevent mining at Jabiluka. At the recent Australian Uranium Summit in Adelaide, the federal Labor spokesperson on resources and energy, Stephen Smith, confirmed that Labor would allow uranium mining to go ahead if ERA had a government-approved contract for exports. He said the definition of new and existing mines was "complicated", involving "fact and law".
Waiting on the re-election of the ALP in the hope that it can be convinced to change its policy will only stall the campaign at a time when it is most crucial that an independent mass movement be built — a movement that can oppose the mine and call on the ALP to change its present position to an anti-uranium one.
Wendy Robertson, Sydney Resistance organiser and a member of the Jabiluka Action Group, told Green Left Weekly: "The rejection of the Mirrar people's claim by the Federal Court demonstrates that the campaign cannot rely solely on appeals to the legal system to rule against the interests of big business. It highlights the need to build broad public opposition to the Jabiluka uranium mine. The national day of action will be crucial in building this opposition in the community."
The Mirrar people are considering an appeal of the Federal Court decision, and plans for a blockade of the mine site are well under way. One of the organisers of the campaign in Sydney, the Wilderness Society's Chris Doran, told Green Left Weekly: "At least a couple of hundred people will be involved in the blockade to prevent ERA from beginning construction. People want Kakadu protected. They do not want our most precious World Heritage area to be used as a radioactive waste dump."
"The blockade will be an important part of the campaign not only from the point of view of providing physical opposition to mining but also being a beacon for the campaign around the rest of the country", Robertson said.
"However, a few hundred people on their own won't be able to stop a huge multinational mining company from proceeding with their plans. The blockade is more likely to succeed if the campaign that exists already against uranium mining is broadened. The two components of the campaign are complementary.
"The campaign in the late '70s and early '80s to save the Franklin River in Tasmania was successful because it was able to combine a blockade and a national mass campaign to win the hearts and minds of the people. Different methods were used to raise public awareness and to build mass actions against the decision to build a dam. Campaigners mobilised people in the thousands using well thought out demands, evocative images and films and advocating a 'no dams' informal vote for the dams referendum", Robertson explained.
"A public campaign in the big cities will build support for the blockade and raise money through organising benefit gigs. We need to make sure the leadership of the movement continues to rely on bringing large numbers of people into action and organises them through open, democratic structures. A strategy can win that aims to maximise support for mass action against uranium mining and to demand the Howard government stop the Jabiluka mine."
Contact your nearest Resistance branch (addresses page 2) to get involved in the campaign.