Japanese Greens leader visits Darebin

This morning, Councillor Trent McCarthy and Greens National Councillor Alex Bhathal hosted Rikiya Adachi, and leading member of the Japanese Greens, in Darebin, where he met with local representatives from Japanese for Peace and was interviewed for the Northcote and Preston Leader newspapers. 

Rikiya then hand-delivered a letter to the electorate office of Martin Ferguson, Member for Batman and Minister for Energy & Resources, calling for an end to Australian uranium mining and exports, in line with the recent AG National Council resolution (copied below):

 

Resolution on the Fukushima Disaster

Adopted by The Australian Greens National Council  July 10^th, 2011

The following resolution was agreed after Namiho Matsumoto and Rikiya Adachi from Greens Japan addressed the meeting.

We, Australian Greens and Greens Japan, call on people around the world:

1.      to put pressure on the Japanese Government and on TEPCO to gather and release all relevant information, including raw data, and to return the exposure limit back to the normal level so that people, especially those who are physically and socially vulnerable, can be saved.

We call on the Japanese Government to:

1.      Immediately evacuate people, especially children and expectant mothers, from highly radioactive contaminated areas.

2.      Strengthen the monitoring of radioactive contamination of air, soil, water, foods and the sea, and make the information, including raw data, publicly available;

3.      Enable the ongoing monitoring and recording, free of charge, of external/internal radiation exposure history of all people in affected areas. Measures to achieve this include the widespread distribution, free of charge, of integrating dosimeters, as well as the use of Whole Body Counters, blood, mother’s milk and urine analysis.

4.      Allow international experts and organisations to fully participate in the search for and implementation of the best means possible of responding to the crisis.

5.      Establish a special institution for the treatment of nuclear waste;

6.      Abandon nuclear energy, by:

a.       Not restarting nuclear power plants closed down under the regular inspection regime;

b.      Closing down all nuclear power plants currently operating;

c.       Decommissioning all nuclear power plants in Japan;

7.      Declare Japan a nuclear-free country, including of commercial use.

We call on the Australian Government to resolve that it must prevent fuelling more Fukushimas by:

1.      Declaring a moratorium on uranium mining and export, following many governments around the world that are pausing to reflect on the merits and risks of nuclear power;

2.      Ceasing negotiation of any new bilateral uranium and nuclear related treaties;

3.      Rehabilitating uranium mine sites, isolating contaminated tailings from the environment and initiating long-term stewardship arrangements;

4.      Registering all past and current radiation workers on the National Dose Register;

5.      Conducting long term follow up health studies on occupationally exposed workers and their families;

6.      Restoring full rights to all people violated or disadvantaged by uranium mining in Australia, including Aboriginal communities;

7.      Planning, preparing and implementing a transition from a fossil economy to a renewable future.

We call on all governments to:

1.      Cease nuclear power development, towards a complete phase out;

2.      Intensify research into the safe treatment of nuclear waste;

3.      Create a new, independent institution of scientific and other experts, charged with the responsibility of protecting people and environments from radioactive contamination.