Commenting on the story: Kimba dumped: Albanese Government drops plans for SA nuclear waste site

What a great victory! So the radioactive (not necessarily nuclear, but that wouldn’t fit the narrative) waste “stored” underneath a stairwell at Adelaide Uni on North Tce remains.

So too do the 10,000 44gal (200ltr) drums of CSIRO waste shipped by Paul Keating from Victoria via NSW to a disused hanger at Woomera. Makes a lot of sense. – Huw Morgan

A shame that the previous government’s propaganda is continuing with the line in the article ‘…to stop the controversial low-level waste repository on the Eyre Peninsula.’

Please be clear, it was not just a low-level waste repository. Nowhere near that. Over 90% of the total waste was to be intermediate-level waste from ANSTO – toxic for an incredible 10,000 years – and for at least the first 100 years to be transported across country stored (not deposited) above ground. No wonder there was strong opposition. – Michele Madigan

What’s wrong with somewhere at Woomera? It’s Commonwealth land. – Alan Southern

So what happens with low level nuclear waste now? Does it stay stored in hospitals etc in densely populated areas? What’s the plan for the future? – Michael Bouman

Commenting on the story: Christians rally as council prayer row escalates

What a storm in a teacup orchestrated by the Australian Christian Lobby and one theatrical Councillor.

Our Councils operate within the secular realm – roads, rates, rubbish and city planning – so an opening prayer should either be secular, ecclesiastically inclusive or observed in silence. Tradition is one thing, but imposing Christian prayer within the secular domain of a City Council chamber that governs a diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-religious society is an absurd anachronism.

There are plenty of appropriate places where prayer is abundantly accommodated in our City of Churches. Councillor Davis’ defiant prayer is all very suffocatingly hegemonic and out of touch, followed by a speech peppered with culture war tactics.

The last Census showed 45% of the City are non-religious/secular, about 40% are Christian denominations and 10% other religions. So Councillor Davis should either observe the prayer in silence like everybody else, or start practicing his defiance inclusively. Perhaps the Islamic Adhan prayer or the Jewish Shema prayer at the next Council meeting?

Get on with it Councillors, there’s a housing crisis, empty shopfronts and office towers that all require policy reform and action! – Deniz Kilic

To say that a silent prayer as opposed to a spoken one ‘diminishes his views’ suggests that Councillor Davis doesn’t understand how faith works — and it certainly makes it clear that he doesn’t understand how religious freedom works.

Some seem to think that “religious freedom” means that religious people should be free to express their beliefs in whatever way they see fit. This is not the case.

Religious freedom involves balancing competing sets of rights and freedoms, and an intrinsic part of religious freedom is the right to freedom FROM religion.

To insist that everyone, regardless of their beliefs, should have to sit through your act of worship, is arrogant and egocentric. It demonstrates a view that your right to religious expression outweighs any right other people have to be free from it; that your views should be regarded as superior and given preferential treatment.

As for the Australian Christian Lobby’s flashmob, the dishonesty in the ACL’s stated mission to “stand up for religious freedom” is evident in the words of their former MD, Martyn Iles: “Not all religions are equal.” Their followers are not interested in equality of religious views but the supremacy of their own views.

With the City of Adelaide Council being a body that “promotes equal opportunity” and “promotes positive and respectful behaviour”, this goes against everything the Council stands for.

Prayers — which are, after all, an act of worship — have no place in government business. By all means reflect upon your duties and responsibilities in whatever way you see fit, but to insist that all Council members must engage in (or at least sit through) a sectarian worship ritual that may well mean nothing to them in order to do their job properly is not only inappropriate and outdated but also nonsensical. – Peter Monk