LYNAS CORPORATION —
WASTE
629. Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE to the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer to the forthcoming visit of
Hon Yeo Bee Yin, the Malaysian Minister of Energy, Science, Technology,
Environment and Climate Change, in mid-June 2019, to personally negotiate the
return of Lynas Corporation's radioactive waste from Malaysia to
Australia, and the article in The Australian of 5 June 2019 titled ''WA
rules out importing radioactive waste from Malaysia''.
(1) Will the relevant minister meet
with Hon Yeo Bee Yin?
(2) Will the
minister explain the rationale of the Western Australian government's
position on not receiving this radioactive waste from Malaysia at that meeting?
(3) Would the
acceptance of the radioactive waste from Malaysia breach the restrictions
imposed by the Nuclear Waste Storage and Transportation (Prohibition) Act 1999?
(4) If no to (3),
what is the rationale for not accepting waste generated from a Western Australian
project?
(5) Is the
minister aware that Minister Yeo's decision to require Lynas to remove
its radioactive waste from Malaysia is a precondition for it gaining an
operating licence extension in Malaysia, as per an undertaking Lynas signed
with the Malaysian government in 2012?
Hon ALANNAH
MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for Mines and
Petroleum.
(1) Yes.
(2) The safe
disposal of by-products generated from overseas processing facilities is the
responsibility of the operators and the governments hosting and regulating
those facilities.
(3) No, because the waste to which
the honourable member refers is not nuclear waste.
(4) The state
government supports downstream processing of minerals in Western Australia and
the economic benefits associated with those processing operations. Accepting a by-product
generated from overseas processing is contrary to the state government's
desire to encourage increased investment in advancing processing operations in Western
Australia.
(5) The minister
has seen various reports about Malaysia's requirements for Lynas
gaining an operating licence extension, but is unaware of the conditions
actually required.