Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Honourable members opposite yell out 'There's a ban.' Yes, there is; there's a federal ban. What they don't talk about so much is that there's also a ban on nuclear energy in the three mainland eastern states, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Recently, we've seen leaders of the opposition, leaders of the Liberal Party, asked whether they would lift the ban. Mr Crisafulli, when asked if he supported the federal Liberal nuclear policy, said, 'No, we don't.' Mr Pesutto said, 'The ban can't be removed in the short term and won't be.' So those opposite need to explain how they'll overcome a ban in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

I'm also asked about local members. Today we've seen 12 local members of great conviction say they fully support nuclear policy as long as it's not in their electorates. I won't go through them all. The member for Hinkler had an interesting reason: 'I have some technical reasons that would make it unlikely. We don't have a power station, we don't have the infrastructure, and we have earthquakes.' My favourite was the member for Menzies, who said, 'No reasonable person would suggest putting them right where people live.'

So we're narrowing it down. It's going to be six electorates with a power station, infrastructure, no earthquakes and no people. I know there's a redistribution coming, but I doubt it's going to produce six electorates with nobody living in them. That would be an unusual result for a redistribution. The sooner we get some detail from the opposition, sooner their policy will fall apart.

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