House debates
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Questions without Notice
Nuclear Energy
2:56 pm
Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Prime Minister. Former Australian Workers' Union secretary Dan Walton said:
If Australia wants to accelerate along the path to becoming a zero-carbon economy, this is a golden opportunity to create the capacity to build small modular reactors capable of powering energy-hungry manufacturing.
Does the Prime Minister support the union movement's call to lift the nuclear energy moratorium?
Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! Members on my left and right will cease interjecting.
The member for Barker and the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme will cease interjecting.
2:57 pm
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for his question about a business leader who he says speaks on behalf of the entire trade union movement. I'll give you the big tip here: the union movement campaign will be very strong against your nuclear power plant, because what they know is that your plan will destroy jobs. Your plan will lead to higher power prices. Your plan will undermine manufacturing in this country. You do not have a plan for anything between now and the 2040s.
What we have is a shortage right now. Eight power stations had shut down by the time we came to office—Redbank, Wallerawang, Anglesea, Northern Power, Playford, Morwell, Hazelwood and Muja AB—all on your watch. On their watch there were 24 separate announcements of power station closures. What they used to do was respond to that by handing a lump of coal around their front bench, thinking that that was funny. I'll give you another big tip: don't try that with uranium. What you did was make a joke of it. You pretended that coal was the future for 10 years while you did nothing. While power stations closed and energy supply went backwards, you refused to support alternative plans. You spoke about a gas led recovery and then nothing happened. You now say you're going to have a nuclear recovery. This is the same mob that replaced fibre in the NBN with copper—
Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Prime Minister will pause. The member for Moncrieff on a point of order.
Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Prime Minister should direct his comments through the chair.
Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I remind all members about using the standing orders.
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
That's the most significant point they've made today. Here's what Andrew McKellar of ACCI said. We're quoting business leaders such as Mr Walton; here's Andrew McKellar, not a Labor branch member as far as I am aware:
Past failure … has crimped certainty for industry and investors, and left our energy sector in disarray. Australian businesses and households are now paying the price.
Indeed they are, as a result of the failure by those opposite to set Australia up for the present, let alone plan for the future. That is what we inherited. Those are the problems that we are solving. That's why we have a positive plan going forward. Those opposite have no detail about how many reactors or about how much the cost will be. They just have rhetoric, which is all about delaying the investment that we need. (Time expired)