We must right the wrong of Maralinga

In the early 1950s, when the old country requested that a stretch of Australia should be set aside to allow the Brits to explode nuclear bombs, Menzies was only too eager to please. A few bombs were tested on Montebello Island off Western Australia, but the area was pretty small and when more territory was sought, Maralinga was chosen.

It must have been an easy choice at the time. A long way from anywhere, no population to speak of apart from a few Aborigines who could easily be moved on, inhospitable desert unfit for living creatures apart from lizards, snakes and witchetty grubs – no doubt his view was that this would be uncontroversial, and he was right.

As Australia recovered from the aftermath of World War II there were bigger things to worry about than Maralinga.

Perhaps if he had consulted more widely someone might have alerted him to the danger of nuclear radiation.

While no one had wanted to talk about the effects on the hated Japanese populace of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima detonations, maybe somebody would have at least raised the query.

While in hindsight I can forgive Menzies for allowing nuclear bombs to be let off in remote wastelands of central Australia, it is much harder to accept his decision to allow Australians to be used as guinea pigs in these experiments. The British had been quite open about this. They wanted to see what effects these explosions had on human beings.

The human beings chosen were Australian soldiers. Some 8000 of them were sent to Maralinga and made to watch the bombs go off.

The men themselves had no idea of the dangers to which they were being exposed. The film shot at the time showed soldiers with smiling faces counting to 10 after they heard the explosion. At this point they were to turn and face the direction of the explosion. They did so without complaint. Mostly they stood within a few kilometres of ground zero. They saw the flash, they saw the mushroom cloud, they felt the rush of the wind and the ground shaking.

No protective clothing was provided to them; they took part in these experiments dressed in shorts and ordinary army issue shirts. Whatever blisters or hot spots appeared on their bodies were duly noted by British and Australian physicians. It was no big deal at the time and these ordinary Aussie blokes took it in their stride.

It all seems so surreal now, so innocent. For the hapless 8000, the troubles occurred years later.

You don’t need to be a scientist to know the terrible effects of nuclear devices. At a meeting of the ALP’s national executive I can remember seeing a video of what happened at Hiroshima. There was a huge debate in the party at the time about the export of uranium, and Tom Uren, a leftie whom I always admired, brought along the video to assist his efforts to enforce an export ban.

It was the only time I almost weakened in my resolve to permit the export of uranium for peaceful purposes. The images have never left my mind. It wasn’t simply the mass destruction of buildings. I recall pictures of the outline of human beings burnt into concrete. Much of what was in that film is too graphic to list in this column. It would sicken readers as much as it sickens me.

That 8000 of our men could be placed so close to ground zero seems impossible to believe. That we as a nation have refused to compensate these men is bad enough; that we won’t even grant them full access to health benefits is just plain staggering.

You will not be surprised to learn that cancer rates are 23 per cent higher in these men than in the rest of the population. Their children have higher rates of cancer as well. Deformities, miscarriages and the like are too easy to find among their families.

Despite these facts, for five decades Australian governments have refused to look after these men properly. Only 2000 of them are still alive. Maybe we’re waiting till there are only a handful left to step in and give them what they so richly deserve.

Because it is impossible to prove that the cancers which have killed or are killing these men had their genesis at Maralinga, we continue to ignore the difference in cancer rates. Perhaps we are kidding ourselves that this is just an accident of history. If so, these men no longer see the joke.

The argument used to reject compensation is that these men were never in combat. It is almost as if we are to accept that the only way a soldier could be hurt or maimed is with a bullet or a grenade or a bayonet. Seems to me that you get just as dead from cancer caused by nuclear explosion as from a bullet.

These men were put in harm’s way by the Australian government.

Surely in a country where we can find money for baby bonuses, pink batts and a million school halls, we can find enough to at least provide proper medical care for these men.

On my Sky News show this week I interviewed Ray Phillipson OAM, a 75-year-old veteran of Maralinga. He isn’t bitter – just bewildered at his country’s failure to give him and his mates justice. He hasn’t much time left. This country must act now. It’s too late for the 6000 who have passed on but the remaining 2000 should not die wondering.

More… http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/we-must-right-the-wrong-of-maralinga/story-fnfenwor-1226587964809