Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's not often I get to start a speech in this chamber by saying, 'I'm about to get a free lunch!' because the member for Macnamara put out a challenge that any member who could come in and explain where a small modular reactor was being developed or utilised in the world today would get a free lunch. I went and did the research. Lo and behold, there is a floating SMR, Akademik Lomonosov, in the north-east region of Russia, right now, and it's used for the purpose of water desalinisation—the power of technology utilised to build the future and hydrate the planet and desalinate water. So, member for Macnamara, Elwood Bathers is a great restaurant in your electorate and I can't wait for the lunch!

It must be a difficult conversation for the member for Macnamara. He fits in as part of the science deniers on the Labor side of politics, who deny the science behind nuclear power and don't want to engage in understanding the power of these technologies. Don't get me wrong. As bad as the member for Macnamara is, he's not as bad as the ineffectual Marxist member for Melbourne, who's a science denier on genetically enhanced food and a science denier on nuclear power. And Senator Hanson-Young, in the other place, is now talking about how the Greens party is being infiltrated by anti-vaxxers, vaccine deniers, who are starting to look at the Greens party and go, 'They really don't like science technology, progress and building the future of this country.'

The focus of this government is to bring the future forward and build jobs and opportunities for Australians.

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