Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love reading fairytales to my grandchildren and stories about fantasy, so I'm really looking forward to reading the coalition's nuclear power policy to them when and if it is ever released. It's pure fantasy to believe that our country, with its natural resources of solar, hydro and wind, needs or can handle nuclear energy. But we shouldn't forget that it was a previous coalition government that tried to dump a nuclear power station at Jervis Bay.

I appreciate the role of nuclear energy in producing nuclear isotopes for medicine and the great things that it can do, but a nuclear power industry in Australia will come too late, be too expensive and will come with side effects, like dealing with nuclear waste, that we can ill afford dealing with. If you go to the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor now, you will see warehouses full of nuclear waste that they can't get rid of. What are we going to do if, in 10 or 20 years' time, we have more nuclear power stations? It's an absolute joke, a complete fantasy. I just cannot understand why the coalition is persisting with it.

Australians of all ages want us to ensure that they keep their lights on by using renewable power sources. Under the coalition government, over 20 coal plants were closed but weren't replaced. We need to do more with renewables. (Time expired)