Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want cheaper electricity prices for my people within the electorate of Wright. I want cheap electricity prices for my pensioners, for my homeowners, for families and for renters. I want cheaper electricity prices for my businesses, my farmers and my irrigators, and I want cheaper electricity prices for my manufacturers. I don't suspect that a $300 sugar hit from those on the other side is sustainable into the future. As a government, we have signed up to global emissions reduction targets, which I think we should keep. We've also signed up, as a country, to the AUKUS nuclear powered submarines. With that comes responsibilities and obligations as a government that we will have to take into consideration in dealing with some of the sensitivities around nuclear power.

I want to acknowledge the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, for starting the conversation around nuclear power with the Australian public. Nuclear power is also a zero-emission base-load power. We need to have a respectful debate around why 19 of the most advanced economies in the world—the United States, China, Germany, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Italy, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Indonesia, Netherlands, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Australia—all have nuclear power, with the exception of us. In the words of the great Colin Powell, we need to 'replace unknowns with knowns' during this respectful debate.