Editors --- "Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Act 2006 (Cth) - Digest" [2007] AUIndigLawRw 18; (2007) 11(1) Australian Indigenous Law Review 125

• Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Act 2006 (Cth)

Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Act 2006 (Cth)

Act No 161 of 2006

Assented to 11 December 2006

The purpose of the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Act 2006 (Cth) (‘CRWM Act’) is to provide for the return of nominated Aboriginal land to land trusts after the land has been used for a radioactive waste facility. Following its return, land in which the Commonwealth obtained a fee simple interest will have the same status as land granted to a land trust under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth).

The CRWM Act indemnifies, following the land return, the land trust(s) against damages arising from the use of the land for a facility. However, these damages may be reduced to the extent of contributory negligence by the lands trust (s 14H(2)), and removed altogether if the lands trust does not adhere to legislative directions from the Commonwealth. (s 14H(2)).

The CRWM Act provides a mechanism for the possible return of nominated Aboriginal land when the site(s) has been released from the Commonwealth’s regulatory control. This amendment remediess a deficiency in the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Act 2005 (‘2005 Act’), in that it did not have a direct mechanism for the return of land(s).

Section 3D of the CRWM Act removes the right to procedural fairness in relation to nominations and approvals of potential sites to be used in the treatment of radioactive waste. The fact that the CRWM Act negates the right to be heard may detriment the position of landholders, since the process of approving sites under the 2005 Act is left to the minister ‘in his or her absolute discretion’ (s3(c)(1)).

Section 7(5A) of the CRWM Act provides that failure to comply with the rules of nominations set out under subsection 3B(1) does not affect the validity of a nomination under section 3A or a ministerial declaration under subsection 7(1).

Under the CRWM Act, a site could therefore be nominated and accepted for use as a radioactive waste facility without the knowledge or consent of traditional owners.

This Act amends the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Act 2005 (Cth), which was extracted in Volume 10.1 of the AILRev. The full text of both the original and Amending Act are available online at:

<http://www.austlii.edu.au> .