THE cabinet has yet to decide if Lynas Corp must send back waste generated from rare earth mining to Australia, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He said the matter will be discussed soon.

“We will take the matter to the cabinet meeting. There will be different opinions, but that is normal. What is decided later will be the government’s official stand,” he said in Putrajaya today.

Yesterday, Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh lashed out at Lynas, saying its waste could affect village folk living near its plant.

She said in a mere five years, the site and groundwater have been contaminated with heavy metals from the radioactive waste and 1.5 million tonnes of scheduled refuse.

Fuziah, who is also deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said many people misconstrue the issues surrounding the Lynas plant, especially regarding radioactive waste management.

On March 24, Lynas Malaysia Radiation Safety general manager Professor Dr Ismail Bahari was reported as saying there is no basis to claims that the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Gebeng, Kuantan, could cause a toxic waste incident like that which happened at Sg Kim Kim in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof yesterday said the matter of Lynas exporting waste from its plant to Australia is not a cabinet decision.

He said it may have been an opinion by Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin, and that she should take responsibility for her statement.

The cabinet decision allowing Lynas to continue its operations is clear, he said, adding that waste management is separate from the plant’s operations.

“To take the waste back to Australia, that is not a decision by the cabinet, it was a suggestion,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby. – April 2, 2019.