Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. In Chris Uhlmann's documentary on Sky News last night, US nuclear expert John Williams said, 'Just about every continent has nuclear power except Australia.' Why is the Albanese Labor government out of step with the rest of the world, which is increasingly taking up civil nuclear energy?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are very happy to receive the question from the honourable member, as we are very happy to stay on this topic all day and indeed every day between now and the next election. While it has missed the attention of those opposite that we don't have a civil nuclear industry in this country, that there isn't the sunk cost in place, which is what's enjoyed by those other countries which have a civil nuclear industry—while that fact may have been missed by those opposite, it has not been missed by the Australian people. The Australian people understand that, as the Leader of the Opposition pursues this ridiculous policy, the only people who will end up paying for it is them. They will pay for it through their energy household bills and they will pay for it to the tune of an additional $1,200 in respect of their household energy bills. That is why this government is not walking down the path of a civil nuclear industry.

This government has front and centre in its mind the cost-of-living challenges which are being faced by the Australian people, so every step that we take is going to be about putting downward pressure on the costs that they experience, which is so very, very different to what this Leader of the Opposition represents. Be it what he did as the health minister, be it what he would do if he were ever given the chance to be the Prime Minister again or be it what is being proposed in terms of the policy in relation to the establishment of the civil nuclear industry in this country, what this Leader of the Opposition represents is a material and present risk to the household budgets of every single Australian.