James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Naval shipbuilding is vitally important for our national security and for our defence capability—defending our nation and our interests. It's also vitally important economically for our industrial capacity. As an MP from the city of Adelaide, it's acutely important to the economy of my home city. We are very proudly at the centre of naval shipbuilding—in the southern hemisphere, not just for the great nation of Australia. We're building the frigate program, and we'll also be building the future AUKUS nuclear powered submarines, at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia. That involves putting nuclear reactors in the belly of those submarines. That will be happening within the city limits of metropolitan Adelaide. It is a safe undertaking; it is one that the people of Adelaide have embraced and are not fearful of.

Behaviour from some, particularly in the government, over the last week calling into question the safety of a nuclear industry is extremely irresponsible and reckless and needs to be utterly condemned. In particular, there are members of the executive of government that have been spreading fear about the safety of nuclear reactors. I make the simple point that the local member for the electorate that will be constructing the future nuclear submarines is also the Minister for Health and Aged Care of the nation. I have not heard him say anything irresponsible whatsoever about the safety of nuclear reactors, and I commend him for that, but I call on him to condemn members of his own party who are suggesting that there is something unsafe about nuclear reactors. I call on him to send a clear message to his constituents and the people of greater Adelaide, including my constituents, that it is completely farcical and fraudulent to suggest that there is any safety risk whatsoever to a responsibly managed nuclear industry. I call on him to make sure that constituents in the health minister's own electorate know that they have nothing to fear whatsoever about the great economic and industrial opportunity that is coming their way through the installation of nuclear reactors into submarines in the health minister's electorate.

The Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Prime Minister should condemn members of their party, and the Prime Minister in particular should condemn members of his own executive, that have made utterly fraudulent claims about the safety of the nuclear sector in this nation. This is something that is way beyond the pathetic student politics that has been engaged in particularly through social media. I send a very clear message to my constituents and the people of Adelaide that they have nothing to fear about the great opportunities of a nuclear industry in our home state of South Australia.