Debate over building a high-level nuclear waste dump is not over yet in South Australia, with Premier Jay Weatherill saying he wants a state-wide referendum on the issue.
Mr Weatherill said he was keen to restore bipartisanship with a “broad social consent secured through a state-wide referendum”.
“Ultimately this is a matter for people to decide, not politicians,” he said.
“If broad social consent were to be achieved through a referendum, a local Aboriginal community would also be given a final right of veto on any future facility on their land.”
SA Greens leader Mark Parnell said the Government would need either four Opposition Liberals or four crossbenchers’ votes in the Upper House to allow any referendum but it had neither.
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Distrust a ‘fundamental issue’: Premier
Mr Weatherill said the state needed to grapple with the “fundamental issue” of distrust between Indigenous and non-Indigenous South Australians.
“This remains an issue in other developments and activities going to occur in lands that the Aboriginal people regard as their own,” he said.
Dianah Mieglich was a citizens’ juror who voted against continuing down the path of South Australia considering a nuclear waste facility.
She said the statement the Premier had now delivered came as no surprise to her.
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