The launch of the Nuclear Freeways Campaign took place outside federal resources minister Martin Ferguson’s office on July 30.
The launch was a send-off for a group of activists from Friends of the Earth who will travel the likely route nuclear waste will be transported from Sydney to a proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty station in the Northern Territory.
One of the participants in the trip, Friends of the Earth campaigner Cat Beaton, told protesters there was a potential for “nuclear waste dumps at lots of places” if one of the trucks transporting the nuclear waste had a tyre blow-out.
Beaton said that the protesters had lined up lots of meetings with local councils along the route of the trip.
Australian Conservation Foundation anti-nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney said: “This issue is an issue for Australia. The proposed dump is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind, no-consent dumping proposal.
“People should not have to trade country for a road or a hospital or housing.”
This is a reference to the fact that the government has persuaded some of the traditional owners to sign away their land for a nuclear waste dump, while other traditional owners are campaigning strongly against the dump.
See Engage Media video of the launch here.