John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am only saying things that the bloke sitting on your right has said, because on this issue the member for Batman speaks a great deal of sense—the member for Batman is on the money. If the member for Batman had the restraints taken off him, he would be on board in relation to nuclear power. And I can tell by the way he laughs and grins that deep down Martin is in the nuclear camp—I know that. I know Martin: if you trawl around enough, you will find Martin and a bit of enriched uranium sitting side by side.

So what you really need in this debate is to have a multiplicity of responses. You do not want to get too theological about it; you want a multiplicity of responses. You will never be able to generate baseload power using solar and wind; you can make a contribution at the margins, you can help in peak hours but you will never be able to generate baseload. The only things that will ever replace the current dirty power stations are cleaner uses of fossil fuel, or nuclear power. You will never replace them with solar or wind.

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