Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday there were reports that the Sunshine Coast is to be the location of a nuclear power plant, and I want to place on the record my complete opposition to any suggestion that this wonderful holiday area should be the host of a nuclear power plant. I believe that we need a debate in Australia over the future of nuclear energy, but I consider that the inclusion of the Sunshine Coast along with other premium holiday areas in the suggestions by the Australia Institute could only be a sick joke which someone is seeking to perpetrate on these particular areas.

It is an absolutely crazy suggestion that the Sunshine Coast should host a nuclear power plant. There is absolutely no way that the people of the Sunshine Coast or I as the local member would accept any such project in the region. I am totally opposed to such an idea. Lots of Sunshine Coast residents would have got indigestion as they consumed their breakfast during the TV talk show Sunrise. Sunrise has been entirely irresponsible. It is very important to make it clear that, while there ought to be a debate about nuclear power—and I consider that nuclear power will have a role in energy production in Australia in the future—it is irresponsible and inappropriate that completely unsuitable areas should be talked about as possible locations for a nuclear power plant.

The suggestion that the Sunshine Coast would host such a power plant is reckless and has caused confusion and fear. There is no doubt that the disaster at Chernobyl in 1986, which was caused by poor reactor design, has helped to generate common concern about nuclear power plants and nuclear power more generally. Officials from the Australia Institute claimed that it will be necessary to locate such a plant close to a large supply of water, yet, as was made clear by Leslie Kemeny in today’s Financial Review, the nuclear power station would be a generation IV factory assembly line built meltdown and terrorist proof unit requiring very little water in its operation.

There is no doubt that the Sunshine Coast is an entirely inappropriate location for a nuclear power plant. I think it is inappropriate that the people of the Sunshine Coast should be subjected to such threats. Not only is the area the wrong place for a power plant to be positioned but it could well hurt our local economy because it could create the perception that the Sunshine Coast is not a safe place to visit. This is a crazy proposal and I reject it completely. (Time expired)