Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, that's an around-the-world question, and I'm happy to go around the world. Let's speak about—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause. The member for Hume is now on a warning. He is on the MPI, so that's it—no more interjections.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition has said, when it comes to large-scale reactors, the coalition wants to rely on—to quote him—the Westinghouse AP1000. Well, let's have a look at that. In 2008 the Georgia Power company announced plans to expand the Vogtle plant, signing a contract with Westinghouse Electric to build two AP1000 nuclear reactors—the first new nuclear reactor to be built in the US since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Construction began in 2009. The initial cost estimate was $22 billion, and the project was expected to be up and running in 2017. Now, after 14 years of construction, the final bill came in at $54 billion—a $32 billion cost blowout and delivered seven years late.

It's not the only one, because, in 2008 also, South Carolina Electric & Gas and the South Carolina Public Service Authority announced plans to expand the Virgil C Summer nuclear power station, signing a contract to build two, again, AP1000 nuclear reactors. A few false starts—construction finally began in 2013. The project was estimated to cost $15 billion and to be completed in 2016. By 2017 the cost had ballooned to $38.2 billion. In the waste of that, the project was cancelled, but only after $14 billion had been spent—$14 billion had been spent but not a gig created. It's a bit like the member for Hume's schemes when they were in government—a bit like their schemes. And, in the wake of these two debacles, Westinghouse Electric filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2017.

It's no wonder that the former New South Wales treasurer and energy minister Matt Kean, now the chair of the Climate Change Authority, when asked why he didn't go down the nuclear road, said, 'Advice to me was that, in order to bring nuclear into the system, it would take far too long and would be far too expensive for New South Wales. I didn't want to bankrupt the state.' That's what Matt Kean had to say.

So, if you want to talk about examples, we're happy to engage in this debate. In the meantime we'll get on with providing the support for the energy that Australia needs, which is the transition that is underway.