Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai’s suggestion to return the hazardous waste from the controversial Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) to Australia is prohibited by international convention, and had also been rejected by the Australian government.

NONE According to a Sin Chew Daily report today, Stop Lynas Save Malaysia (SMSL) chairperson Tan Bun Teet claimed that international transfer of radioactive waste is banned by the Basel Convention, which Malaysia had ratified.

“What more, the Australian government will not accept the waste,” he was quoted as saying.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, known simply as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty designed to reduce the movement of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries.

liow tiong lai pc on kr1m products 231111 02 Yesterday Liow ( right ) told the media that the government will suggest that Lynas move the radioactive waste outside of Kuantan or ship it back to Australia.

This was the consensus reached by him and three other ministers - International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapha Mohamed, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Maximus Ongkili and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas.

“We will suggest to the company that they must move the waste outside of Kuantan, preferably return it back to Australia,” said Liow, who is also the chairperson of the national monitoring committee on the rare earth issue, formed by MCA and Chinese NGOs.

Earlier, Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore reiterated to online news portal Free Malaysia Today that “Australia does not support the importation and storage of other countries’ radioactive waste”.

Moore first made the stance in Australian Parliament last April when Greens MP, Robin Chapple, noted that Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh was lobbying for Lynas to return its waste material to Australia.

“National legislation stipulates that Australia will not accept responsibility for any waste product produced from offshore processing of resources purchased in Australia such as iron ore, mineral sands and the rare earth produced by Lynas Corporation,” Moore said in his statement to the portal.