Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

The question asks how we are going to make nuclear power viable. We are not anywhere near that point. Because we are much more open-minded and practical about these matters than the opposition, which ideologically refuses to even countenance the possibility of nuclear power in this country, we have asked an expert committee, headed by Ziggy Switkowski, to report back to the government on whether nuclear power might be viable in this country and under what circumstances. There are certain reports emanating that suggest that this committee is likely to say that nuclear power could be viable in 15 years time. I have not read the reports. I have had a preliminary discussion with Mr Switkowski in the course of his inquiry. But, like Senator Marshall and others, I await the committee of inquiry’s conclusive report to the government on whether or not, in its view, nuclear power could be viable in this country and under what circumstances.

I think I said yesterday that my prima facie inclination is the one that the Treasurer has expressed publicly, which is that if nuclear power is to become a reality in this country it should be on a commercial basis, not on the basis of commercial subsidies. What I have said is that Australia is blessed with some of the cheapest electricity available in the Western world, based on our abundant supplies of coal and gas, and that would on the face of it make it difficult for nuclear power to be viable in the near to medium term—unless this country is stupid enough to unilaterally impose a tax on carbon. And that seems to be the position of the Labor Party, which does seem to want to tax universally, by way of either a direct tax or an emissions trading scheme, the energy produced in this country. That will, of course, cost Australian households substantially extra in their electricity bills, make energy-intensive industries in this country far less competitive and be likely to drive those industries offshore to other countries that are not imposing carbon taxes on their industries—thus making absolutely no contribution whatsoever to any international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but simply causing unemployment and disinvestment in this country.

So that is the position. We await the view of the Switkowski report as to whether or not nuclear power can be viable, in what time frame and under what circumstances. I repeat my view that, on the basis of the extraordinary efficiency of our energy industry and our abundance of coal and gas, it is difficult to foresee in the near to medium term that nuclear power could be commercially viable. But I await like everybody else the report of the Switkowski committee.