A nuclear waste facility site is on the cards for South Australia.聽The federal government has whittled down its list of potential sites to two communities:聽Hawker in the Flinders Ranges, and Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula.
But local populations, and the people of South Australia in general, have come out strongly against what they see as a natural disaster coming their way.
Local Indigenous communities have been leading the opposition.
Adnyamathanha Traditional Owner聽Regina McKenzie,聽a custodian of the Flinders Ranges site,聽has noted that the site is culturally significant.
McKenzie told聽NITV: "Just in this one spot where they want to put it it鈥檚 got 14 different story lines going over it 鈥 If they put this waste dump there, that鈥檚 robbing us, that鈥檚 cultural genocide."
Yet the federal government is choosing to ignore these views and concerns.
Instead, it is going ahead with a 鈥渃onsultative vote鈥 on August 20, in which 99% of South Australian鈥檚 are not allowed to vote.
Only people living within a 50-kilometre radius of the proposed sites are allowed to participate.聽McKenzie said Adnyamathanha people who are currently living away from the area would not be able to vote.
To incentivise voters, the federal government announced in late July that it would provide $31 million in community development funding for whichever town voted to accept the dump.
The government has also made it clear that the vote is non-binding.
鈥淭his whole process they鈥檝e been doing, it鈥檚 totally flawed鈥,聽McKenzie said.
Australia has a looming nuclear waste problem but moving radioactive nuclear waste from one location to another makes no sense.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, headquartered at Lucas Heights, NSW, has the capacity and expertise to store Australia鈥檚 national nuclear waste for another three decades.
This time should be used to develop a cohesive plan for phasing out nuclear waste instead of building new waste dumps.
Taking away the land that people have considered sacred for 80,000 years is not closing the gap.
And a few million dollars in 鈥渃ommunity development鈥 is a drop in the ocean compared to the health and social costs that will be incurred if the proposed facility goes ahead.
The government must not be allowed to go ahead with its proposed nuclear waste facility in South Australia.