Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The rubber's hitting the road—or maybe, 'The fins are hitting the water,' is a better analogy—when it comes to the government delivering on its commitment to ensure Australia acquires a nuclear propelled, conventionally armed submarine capacity through AUKUS, and the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill 2023 creates a framework to regulate the nuclear safety aspects of activities relating to AUKUS submarines, with an objective of promoting the highest levels of nuclear safety. Consistent with the commitment of AUKUS partners, Australia will uphold the highest standards for safety, security and nonproliferation. This includes in relation to facilities that will support AUKUS submarines in Australia.

The focus here is on creating a new regulatory framework to ensure nuclear safety across Australia's nuclear powered submarines. So this framework will establish a dedicated fit-for-purpose nuclear safety framework; set out clear safety obligations for personnel involved in nuclear propelled submarines' maintenance and operation through a licensing regime for persons conducting regulated activities, with serious civil and criminal consequences if there's a breach of the law; establish a new independent statutory regulator, the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Regulator, within the Defence portfolio, independent of the Defence chain of command; and empower the regulator to operate within a system of regulation alongside domestic agencies and, where appropriate, to collaborate with our US and UK partners. The Net Zero Economy Authority (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024 will allow any of the relevant licences issued by the CEO of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency to transition to the new regulator where they will be regulated activities under the legislation. The government is committed to ensuring the bill establishes a robust, effective regulatory framework to maintain the highest standards of nuclear safety.

The Deputy Prime Minister introduced these bills in November 2023, and they were referred to a Senate committee. On 15 May, that committee published its report and eight recommendations but ultimately recommended that the bill be passed. The government has accepted in full, or in principle, all the recommendations of the Senate committee and will make amendments to the bills to address these. In response to those recommendations, the government amendments are to clarify that the bill does not authorise the establishment of facilities for the purposes of civil nuclear power, the enrichment of uranium or the reprocessing of nuclear material; to establish a requirement that a person must not be appointed as, or remain, the director-general or the deputy director-general of the regulator if they've served any time in the previous 12 months as a member of the Australian Defence Force, or a staff member of defence or the Australian Submarine Agency; to establish a ministerial advisory committee to ensure the minister has independent advice relating to the regulator, its independence and its effectiveness; to allow the Minister for Defence to share reports from the director-general with the Minister for Health and Aged Care and Minister for Industry and Science as the ministers responsible for ARPANSA and ANSTO respectively; and to provide greater sharing and application of nuclear safety best practices and additional penalties for obstructing, hindering or intimidating a member of the regulator to further strengthen the regulator's powers and independence. The government will make other amendments to the bill, including to extend the commencement of the bill from six to 12 months, to ensure an orderly transition to the new regulatory framework. Together, these amendments will strengthen the bill and ensure the highest standard of nuclear safety within Australia's conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarine enterprise.

Australia has decades of nuclear safety regulatory experience and a robust framework to regulate current domestic civilian nuclear activities in fields such as nuclear science and medical research. However, this framework was not designed to consider the unique activities associated with naval nuclear propulsion in a military context. The environments in which submarines operate are inherently hazardous. That's why the government is taking steps to establish fit-for-purpose, specialised regulatory frameworks for nuclear propelled submarines. While nuclear powered submarines have a number of roles, they are Navy vessels designed to operate in hostile undersea environments. Regulating the nuclear safety aspects of this enterprise requires a system that is calibrated to addressing the unique hazards and risks associated with sensitive military capability. This new regulatory system will consider the needs across the life cycle of a submarine to ensure the highest standards of nuclear safety and protection are applied.

The government has made a decision to establish this new independent regulatory authority within the Defence portfolio. The regulator will remain independent, and its organisations will not be subject to commands from the Australian Submarine Agency, the Department of Defence or the Australian Defence Force in the performance of its duties. Having the regulator accountable to the defence minister is consistent with the need to ensure nuclear safety is unique in the context of defence operations. This approach is broadly consistent with regulatory models in the United States and the UK, which have separate defence nuclear safety regulators.

The government is also amending the bill to strengthen the independence of the regulator by ensuring an appropriate separation period from serving in the Defence Force. The director-general and deputy director-general must not be appointed unless the minister is satisfied that the person has the competence, independence, technical expertise and relevant experience to lead the regulator. ADF members, including reservists, are excluded from being appointed as a director-general or deputy director-general of this body to ensure that the regulator remains independent. The term of the director-general or deputy director-general must not exceed five years, though they may be reappointed for further periods, and the DG must not hold office for a total of more than 10 years. The ANNPS Bill will also include a new definition of 'Defence staff member' to include ADF service chiefs, ADF members, APS employees of the Department of Defence and the Australian Submarine Agency in addition to the secretary of the Department of Defence and the head of ASA. The extra qualification around the appointment requiring a separation period will help ensure the independence of this regulator.

The government is committed to ensuring that Australia is a responsible nuclear steward and maintains the highest standards of nuclear safety in respect of nuclear powered submarines. Australia will not manage, store or dispose of spent nuclear fuel from US or UK submarines. To put this matter beyond doubt, the government will amend the bill to make it clear that nothing in the bill authorises the storage or disposal of spent nuclear fuel from United States or United Kingdom submarines. For Australian submarines, we don't expect that there will be a requirement to manage the high-level radioactive waste until the 2050s, when our nuclear propelled submarines are defuelled at the end of their life. This waste will be stored and disposed of on current or future defence estate sites, and the government will announce the process by which it selects this location in due course. All radioactive waste must be managed in line with international best practice and in accordance with Australia's international and domestic legal obligations and commitments, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, or the Treaty of Rarotonga, as it's commonly known. All radioactive waste will be managed in accordance with Australia's comprehensive safeguard agreements, an additional protocol within the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The government is also strengthening the security and the scrutiny of reporting of nuclear safety incidents. The government will amend the ANNPS Bill to include additional public notification requirements of certain nuclear safety incidents. This amendment addresses the scrutiny focused on different approaches between the ANNPS Bill and the ARPANS Act around incident notification. This provision means incidents must be tabled in parliament alongside any action taken by the regulator on relevant licence-holders. I want to be perfectly clear about this. These bills deal only with nuclear powered submarines, not civil nuclear power. The government will amend the bill to explicitly state that the legislation does not support civil nuclear power activities and does not displace Australia's longstanding moratorium on civil nuclear power. These amendments will make it clear that the bill does not authorise the construction or operation of certain facilities, including nuclear power plants, that are not related to an AUKUS submarine.

The government has been clear that Australia's nuclear powered submarine program, including how it will be regulated, is fully consistent with our longstanding non-proliferation obligations and commitments, and we've worked closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency through every step of the process and will continue to do so.

AUKUS is a core pillar of the Albanese government's national security policy to protect our nation, our interests and our security. Central to the government's approach to AUKUS is ensuring that Australia is a responsible nuclear steward. Australia is committed to the global non-proliferation regime, and the Albanese government is committed to maintaining the highest standard of nuclear safety in relation to our future conventionally armed, nuclear propelled submarines.

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