David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I pass my comments on this important bill, I would like to acknowledge the work and contribution over many years, in fact, over a decade, of the member for Grey. I note his contribution today and also the contributions of the member for Fairfax, the member for Macarthur and the member for Lingiari. I must say this has been an issue that has not just popped up; it's been running almost for 40 years, about a new and long-term intermediate- and low-level nuclear waste facility.

Before I entered parliament, I did practice for 33 years as a medical practitioner in general medicine, inside hospitals, in community medicine, consulting and in gastroenterology. During that time, I and just about every other doctor practising in Australia and in the modern western health system have been engaging with nuclear medicine facilities. We have 100 facilities around the country that accumulate low-level and intermediate waste. Currently, the vast majority of it is stored at the ANSTO site at Lucas Heights.

I would just like to demystify, for members of the public who are listening to this: intermediate- and low-level waste is not what it is popularly understood to be. It is actually the gloves, needles and syringes that are used in nuclear medicine facilities. It is all the leftover radiopharmaceuticals that are used in drugs and therapeutic and diagnostic tests—the accessories to PET scans and SPECT-CTs. If you've ever had health issues assessed by diagnostic tests, odds on—in your lifetime, there's a 50 per cent chance you will—you'll be the beneficiary of nuclear medicine, whether it's I-131 scans diagnosing thyroid disease or therapeutic doses of radioactive iodine to kill any cancers in your thyroid; bone scans, looking for infections and tumours—PET scans and SPECT-CTs diagnosing the extent; gallium scans, testing for lymphoproliferative disorders or lymphomas; liver cancers; infections; bone disease; bone cancers; thyroid disease; or cardiac tests for testing the ejection fractions that your heart can put out. All these issues rely on nuclear isotopes. In Australia, virtually all of them are manufactured at the ANSTO site at Lucas Heights. Yes, in downtown suburbia, in the middle, surrounded by about two million people, there is a nuclear facility that has happily been operating there since the 1950s. We have operated two nuclear reactors, but they're research reactors, generating isotopes for this very issue.

Around the world, we export these isotopes for use in other countries. When it's up and running fully—which it is now; it has pretty much ramped back up to full capacity, apart from the COVID implications of trading—we supply at full throttle about 27 per cent of the medical isotopes that are used around the Asia-Pacific and the world. That's an unknown and unappreciated fact: that we do have very high nuclear capabilities and we've been helping in nuclear medicine, not just for Australians but for many people.

I have toured the waste facility there on two occasions now. Most of it is sitting in 40-gallon drums, and the compressed gloves, needles and protective gowns that the nurses and the doctors use in nuclear medicine facilities are all squashed into these 40-gallon drums. The intermediate-level waste that has been reprocessed in France is back on that site in a separate big building, in a dry canister storage facility. I've been right up next to it. I've hugged it. I've had a photo taken in front of it just to demystify it for people who, when they hear 'radiation', think there's this red-hot, glowing isotope beaming out towards you. But that is not the case.

We've heard the member for Macarthur say that he doesn't have any problems with nuclear medicine. Well, if we want to grow nuclear medicine and look after our own waste, we will need a new facility. The place at Lucas Heights is just about full. That's why this National Radioactive Waste Management Facility near Kimba will solve the problem that has been floating around parliaments and administrations of various governments for 40 years.

Kimba, as the member for Grey outlined, is currently probably the most informed community in the country, outside the scientific community, about what is involved in a waste facility. Since 2015, there have been nominations voluntarily supplied for sites that have been analysed for suitability, and the decision has been made to go for the Napandee site near Kimba. But, before that, there was a huge education program for the people of Kimba. They've had a vote, supervised by the Australian Electoral Commission and local government, on whether it should be placed there. That went ahead, with 60 per cent in favour to 40 per cent. If you look at the site, it really is a long way from anywhere. To put it into perspective, the current low-level waste facility is in the middle of suburbia, so establishing a facility at this site is not going to harm anyone, but we have to comply with standards. We will continue to supply up to a quarter of the world's needs for isotopes in medicine, so we have to have an expanded site.

There have been tours of people from Kimba to the ANSTO site. There have been information sessions, workshops, newsletters, fact sheets, independent reports, and direct consultation with neighbours, business and traditional owners, including surveys. Between August 2018 and December 2019, there was a public submissions process for people within and outside the communities to express their views. As I said, it was completed with a community ballot run by the Australian Electoral Commission. I think it was probably the most extensive consultation process in my experience.

This bill does give certainty to that wonderful community. They know they're going to be totally safe. They know they're going to get extra jobs and economic activity. There's also going to be a $20 million community fund established to help the cultural, economic and social life of that region. The bill creates a community consultative committee, and it allows the minister to specify the practical nuts and bolts issues about building a site.

Comments have been made about native title. There is no native title engaged in this site, because that has been looked at both in this House and in other inquiries. It is broadly accepted that we need this site. I am perplexed by the last-minute queries and unfounded concerns that some previous speakers have brought to bear, because they don't match with the facts. We've recently heard comments outside this House about international waste. The bill specifically prevents this site from being used for international nuclear waste, apart from the ANSTO-derived reprocessed material that is currently residing in Lucas Heights. As I mentioned, this doesn't extinguish any native title rights. There are no native title rights engaged. A lot of the amendments in this legislation are being made because it was originally thought that the site would be in one of the other states, particularly the Northern Territory. The amendments are being made because that decision is no longer relevant.

I fully support this bill. As I said, nuclear medicine is something that one in two of us will depend on. It allows diseases to be diagnosed, treated, ameliorated and, in some cases, cured without the need for extensive surgery. We want this amazing industry that Australian technologists in ANSTO have developed to flourish and help our near neighbours so that these isotopes for medical use can be applied. It's a great project. I would again like to pay tribute to the member for Grey for his untiring support for this very worthy project and for his patience. I commend the bill to the House.

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