Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Riverina for that impassioned speech. You've got to hand it to the good folks at the Parliamentary Library. They get some pretty wacky requests, I'm sure, throughout the year, but that one I'm sure would have really entertained them.

This MPI proposed by the member for Fairfax is a pretty straightforward one. You've got to give credit to the member for Fairfax. He is like Blinky, the three-eyed fish who swims near the nuclear reactor; he just keeps on swimming, little Blinky, the little three-eyed fish—swimming away, doing his thing. He keeps on chugging. And you've got to give him credit.

One thing that the member for Fairfax isn't telling us is that his big answer, his big alternative for energy policy in this country, is obviously nuclear energy—the most expensive form of energy. And one of the things that the member for Fairfax didn't actually mention in his contribution at the start of this MPI is: Whereabouts are these nuclear reactors going to go? Where are they going to go—whereabouts in Fairfax? Right on Coolum Beach? Move over Clive Palmer's dinosaurs! Move them over! Let's build Ted's reactor. Let's build the member for Fairfax's reactor right there—or you've got Maroochydore: some of the most pristine surf in the country; a beautiful part of the world. But sorry, folks, down in Maroochydore. The member for Fairfax has got big plans for you; there's going to be a new nuclear reactor down in Maroochydore!

But there are members on the other side that don't actually share the same enthusiasm or the member for Fairfax's real affinity for nuclear energy. There are some that are much quieter. There were members in the previous parliament, like the member for Higgins, or the previous member for Higgins—we have a much, much better member for Higgins these days!—who was a big fan of nuclear energy as well. She used to come into this place and support nuclear energy. Down in my neck of the woods, in Melbourne, we have the beautiful Yarra River, with lots of things happening on the side—but, sorry, folks, we're going to have the reactor by the Yarra, according to the previous member for Higgins. It didn't work out too well, so I'm not surprised that the member for Flinders hasn't come in here and said: 'The Portsea pub? No longer. Sorry, we're going to put a nuclear reactor in Portsea.' The member for Flinders hasn't said sorry, folks. All of those who like the Portsea Polo, put your Ralph Lauren shirt on, put your little hat on—

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