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Geelong Deanery |
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Questions of Values
Jabiluka – A Question of MoneyUranium mining has again been propelled into the spotlight with the Federal Government defying a United Nations committee’s call for a six-month halt to development of the Jabiluka uranium mine in the Northern Territory. Uranium is a heavy radioactive metal that is used both in nuclear power reactors and nuclear weapons. Every gram is destined to become radioactive waste. Tailings waster from Ranger and Jabiluka emit radioactivity, and is expected to remain radioactive for over 200,000 years. It is therefore understandable why the Mirrar people, the traditional owners of the land, and environmentalists, who were early buoyed by the listing of this beautiful part of Australia, Kakadu National Park, as World Heritage some years ago, are campaigning against the new Jabiluka mine. On the other hand, the estimated 90,000 tonnes of high-grade uranium oxide located there is worth an estimated $12 billion. For ERA, the mining company, this sort of money is welcomed by its shareholders, and for the powerful in our community this means revenue for the Northern Territory and the Commonwealth. A recent sub-editorial in The Age (27 November) poses a very relevant question: ‘At the very heart of the debate over uranium mining are questions of value and sacrifice. What is it that Australian’s value, and what are we prepared to sacrifice in order to uphold this?’ The answer to these questions should guide us in deciding whether to support the Environment Minister, Senator Robert Hill, who has refused to halt the mining, or the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, which, after inspection of the site, has called for a halt until further assessments of the threat the mine poses to the park can be undertaken.
In the face of the sad plight of the East Timorese people after the Indonesian invasion of their country in 1975, and their brutal subjugation ever since, all Australian leaders from Whitlam through to Howard have acquiesced to this invasion and, unfortunately, to the serious abuses of human rights inflicted on the East Timorese by the occupying Indonesian forces. In a recent address in Melbourne, the Nobel Peace co-laureate, Dr Jose Ramos Horta, accused the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, and past Australian prime ministers of betraying the East Timorese people. He claimed that successive Australian governments have had an ‘obsession with Indonesia’, have ignored labour rights issues in Indonesia, indigenous people’s rights, ignored East Timor, and the cover-up of the killing of the five Australian newsmen, not to mention the cover-up of the killings of thousands of East Timorese. The Geelong Catholic Social Justice Committee has been a consistent supporter of Bishop Bello, the other Nobel Peace co-laureate, and has encouraged successive Australian government leaders to tackle the Indonesian Government, however powerful it may appear, about the annexation of East Timor and the human rights abuses against its people. If our values of human dignity and freedom mean anything, then we have to protest in the strongest possible terms against national predators of smaller states, such as Indonesia on East Timor, which use their power to deny fundamental human values. Gordon Snowdon |
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