The Government writes the word “Transparent” into its Radioactive Waste Plan then proceeds to hide it as Rex Patrick comes looking. What’s the scam?
You’d hope the Labor Government appreciates the need to have a social licence in order to site a National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in a community. On the surface it’s clear they have. The scam is only visible when you dig deeper.
Talk about waste; the Morrison Government wasted $108.6M not establishing a National Radioactive Waste Management facility. Their engagement with the community left half the town discontent when then Minister Pitt decided Kimba was the place for the facility, and the other half of the town discontent when Federal Court Justice Natalie Charlesworth set aside Pitt’s flawed decision.
Labor abandoned the site after the Court’s decision and has started looking elsewhere. And it appears from a document obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws that they’ve learn the lessons as one of the pages embraces transparency as a key to the government’s success moving forward.
Foundational Principle (Source: Industry FOI)
So, what’s the scam.
The scam is, they written the words “transparency” into the plan, but are resisting transparency at every step.
When MWM made the FOI request, the Department pulled out their secrecy weapons. First, they imposed a $829.27 charge. Then they pushed the disclosure date out 54 days past the normal statutory time frame. And then they delivered the decision.
21 documents; 9 partially released (but full of redactions) and 13 completely refused.
That’s a social licence with not many demerit points left!
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the "Transparency Warrior."