Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, you are right. If science could be tamed and brought under bit and bridle, why should anyone trust Labor's future solution? Projects like nuclear energy present viable, safe, clean and economic alternatives to the energy crisis. Debate must move forward from rampant NIMBYism. In truth, the RET is an anachronistic plan that was dreamed up at a time when Australia still had surpluses. The geopolitical situation in the Middle East, Africa and Russia was also more benign, and yet the Labor Party wants Australia to stick to the same plan. How dumb. Our best options for getting to clean, economic sources of power lie with locally sourced, proven nuclear technologies.

I refer here particularly to the debate around thorium reactors and their important future role in the provision of clean energy. Specifically, I would like to see this happen in my home state of Western Australia. Canada, China, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States have experimented with using thorium as a substitute fuel in nuclear reactors. When compared to uranium, there is a growing interest in thorium based nuclear power due to its greater safety benefits and greater abundance. India's three-stage nuclear program is possibly the best-known and best funded of such efforts. Australia has the largest reserves of thorium. We have all the necessary materials and know-how in WA. It is tragic that, with this opportunity, Australia should fall behind India in scientific and economic endeavour.

In a 17-page submission last week, the Business Council of Australia described the RET as poor public policy that is no longer relevant to Australia's circumstances. Today, the Australian Energy Market Operator is set to cut national power demand forecasts for the third straight year. I join others such as Origin and EnergyAustralia in stating the obvious: the full costs are escaping assessment. We should allow the market to determine the best mix of technologies based on market principles, not some arbitrary decision made by Canberra based pen-pushers with little understanding of the drivers of economic competitiveness and technological development. It is my belief that in Australia, our nation should never sacrifice Australian jobs or our standards of living because of an idle threat. Time expired

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