spoke with lee rhiannon's office

I just had a 10 minute conversation with Alison Orme, who works as an advisor/staffer for Senator Lee Rhiannon and is her key advisor on the Lynas issue.

I asked Ms Orme if she believed the IAEA conclusion that the LAMP plant met all safety protocols and posed no meaningful health risk to nearby residents. She said she didn't believe the IAEA. She said "international agencies and government agencies regularly lie when there are big profits involved."

As a follow up to this question, I asked her if she thought that ALL the safety claims in relation to LAMP by the IAEA, AELB, independent experts, and Lynas itself are false. She basically said (in a round about way) that all these claims are in fact false.

I then asked her if there was an inconsistency in Greens policy if the Greens are (1) supporters of renewable energy, and (2) against the mining and refining of rare earths that are essential in the manufacture of key renewable energy technologies such as wind turbine magnets, solar cells, etc. Her answer really surprised me: "We are not supporters of renewable energy if renewable energy endangers peoples lives."

By way of clarifying what she meant by this, I asked her if she believed that the refinement of the raw materials to manufacture wind turbine magnets endangered lives. She didn't answer this question. However she then likened the LAMP to an asbestos plant. (??!!??) She (and I assume Senator Rhiannon) really seem to believe that LAMP is going to kill people.

I asked her if she was aware that Iron Phospho Gypsum can be safely recycled into road surfacing products, concrete blocks for artificial reefs, etc. She said she wasn't (I got the impression that she had never heard the term 'Iron Phospho Gypsum' before, and had no idea what I was talking about).

As the conversation progressed, she seemed to realise that she really hadn't thought this issue through and was not sufficiently across the facts re LAMP to be able to speak intelligently about the issue; she cut off the conversation early by saying that she was going to get Senator Rhiannon to call me back either tomorrow or Friday.

For the record, while I think the Greens are completely at sea on the LAMP issue, I recognise that the greens have sound policies on other issues.

Will post again if Senator Rhiannon says anything interesting.