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

I cannot confirm, without doing a company search, that the company was incorporated and formed on 1 June. It could have been and, for the purposes of discussion, I am prepared to accept the word of the Leader of the Opposition that it was. But what on earth turns on that? My views in relation to nuclear power were well known before 1 June. They have been well known for some time. The Leader of the Opposition is going down a very silly track on this. I know what he is about. Walker, Morgan and de Crespigny are three very reputable businessmen. One of them had a conversation with me—I have many conversations—and he said that he was going to form a company and I said, ‘That is good, Ron.’ I do not apologise for that, because I actually believe in companies being formed. I believe in them making profits and I believe in them paying large taxes if they make a profit. I also believe that if we are honest about tackling climate change—and this is the big piece de resistance of the Australian Labor Party; they are going to lead the way forward in relation to climate change—here you have one of the solutions to climate change.

Let me remind you again, Mr Speaker, what the Chief Scientist, Dr Jim Peacock—he is the principal adviser to the government of Australia about science matters—had to say to me on 21 December 2006:

At present there are only two modes of power generation capable of base-load power production—

that means running the power stations that keep our cities going, that keep the lights on, that keep us in jobs and that keep the wealth being generated; they are indispensable to the economic capacity of this nation—

which can be operated without serious consequences for climate change emission.

And this is what this debate is meant to be meant all about. Surely, those who sit opposite are interested in something that can be run without a serious consequence for climate change emission. Mr Peacock said:

Fossil fuels will be used in Australia now and in the next several decades in power plants.

We all know that. He continued:

These power plants should be operated with minimum emissions and we have technologies to retrofit most existing power stations ...

And so he went on. He then said:

Nuclear power stations are the other clean and mature mode of electricity generation.

This is not John Howard; it is not some ideologue in the debate. It is the dispassionate, rational, impartial Chief Scientist of Australia.

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