Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Defence Legislation Amendment (Naval Nuclear Propulsion) Bill 2023. At the outset, I'd like to commend the speeches of both the honourable member for Fisher and the honourable member for Sturt on this same bill. This bill represents the first of many legislative reforms required to implement the commitment of the former coalition Morrison government, adopted by the Labor government as part of the AUKUS security partnership between Australia and our good friends, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

I commend this government for continuing the work initiated by the former coalition government on the AUKUS partnership for the defence and national security of Australia. By way of background, the AUKUS partnership was announced in September 2021 to promote 'a free and open Indo Pacific that is secure and stable'. The joint statement released by Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom in March of this year provided as follows:

For more than a century, our three nations have stood shoulder to shoulder, along with other allies and partners, to help sustain peace, stability, and prosperity around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific. We believe in a world that protects freedom and respects human rights, the rule of law, the independence of sovereign states, and the rules-based international order. The steps we are announcing today will help us to advance these mutually beneficial objectives in the decades to come.

The first major initiative of AUKUS was the historic trilateral decision to support Australia acquiring conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines, which are generally referred to as SSNs. This involves the manufacture of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines to be built in Adelaide. Australia must be sovereign-ready before it can operate a nuclear-powered submarine. This means Australia must achieve the capacity to be a sovereign owner, operator, maintainer and regulator of this game-changing capability. A series of steps will be required throughout the next decade, with the support of the United Kingdom and United States, to achieve this as early as possible. Australia's target date for achieving the sovereign-ready milestone is the early 2030s. The Minister for Defence, Minister Marles, described this bill as the first legislative step or tranche in the acquisition of the SSNs.

By way of operation, the bill seeks to amend the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act, as well as the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, to clarify that the current moratorium on civil nuclear power does not prevent the relevant regulators under that other legislation from exercising their regulatory powers and performing functions in respect of conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines. In other words, amendments will not disrupt Australia's moratorium on civil nuclear power, and, as my friend the honourable member for Sturt has mentioned, I will have something more to say about that towards the end.

This bill is in the nation's best interests. It concerns the future of our national security and reflects the AUKUS partnership. The one issue that has been raised clearly is the issue of nuclear waste. The AUKUS nuclear power submarine pathway, in its recent report, said:

Australia's nuclear-powered submarines will generate a small amount of low-level radioactive waste, such as personal protective equipment, as part of routine maintenance and operations. There could also be a small amount of intermediate-level radioactive waste generated during these activities. Australia will manage all operational waste from its own submarines … Developing Australia's workforce and know-how to manage radioactive waste from nuclear-powered submarines is an important part of building Australia's stewardship credentials.

I am proud of the role that my electorate will play in assisting the government to deliver the AUKUS arrangements—that is, the role that ANSTO in Lucas Heights, with its demonstrated expertise in nuclear research, science and technology, will play to support the federal government to deliver the nuclear-powered submarines.

Referred to as 'nuclear stewardship' is the responsible planning, operation, application, management and leadership of nuclear facilities and technologies to ensure that the highest levels of safety, security, safeguards and sustainability are achieved to maximise utilisation, benefit and assurance for the people of Australia. For more than 60 years, ANSTO has managed a nuclear reactor and applied nuclear science and technology to benefit Australia. Today, ANSTO operates Australia's only nuclear reactor, known as the OPAL, which is a multipurpose reactor, one of the most advanced reactors in the world. ANSTO has ensured the safe management of Australia's nuclear facilities, which enable leading research, the advanced manufacturing of nuclear medicines and irradiation of silicon ingots for industry globally.

Through ANSTO, Australia is highly regarded, with international networks, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and its already well-established research partnerships within both the UK and the USA. Over the next 18 months, ANSTO will work with the submarine task force project to determine the optimal pathway for the delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine capability for Australia. This will involve working with our partners in the United Kingdom and the United States to intensively examine the requirements that underpin nuclear stewardship. The United Kingdom and the United States have set and maintained exemplary safety records in the operation of naval nuclear reactors for decades. Australia will leverage this experience and our own expertise in safely operating nuclear research reactors at Lucas Heights over more than 60 years to further build on that safety record.

In terms of nuclear waste, ANSTO is already storing nuclear waste—safely. I've had the privilege of touring ANSTO and have witnessed the storage capacity. For those on the opposite side who have intractably and irresponsibly refused to countenance investigating nuclear technology, I would, with respect, suggest that they take the opportunity to tour the ANSTO facilities to actually understand the work that is being performed there with some of the leading nuclear scientists and technical experts in the world. The potential that nuclear technology has to solve many of our current climate and energy issues must be properly investigated.

We have the opportunity in this place—indeed, as members of parliament we have the obligation—to consider every possible avenue available to us, in 2023, to safeguard Australians' futures. It is what we have been elected to do. I still fail to understand why, on the other side, from the Prime Minister down, there is a mule-headed type of stubbornness towards investigating what nuclear technology could mean for us in reaching net zero by 2050 and for us to address our current energy crisis. In conclusion, for all the reasons I've outlined, I commend this bill to the House.

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