Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Parry. We also have had a second reading amendment moved by Senator Stephens. Reading the amendment, I am not sure whether Senator Crossin stepped in some cold water. The amendment is about the process of placing a radioactive waste facility in the Northern Territory. It talks about the imposition of a waste dump on the Northern Territory being extremely arrogant. I cannot stress any harder that, when the Commonwealth runs out of choices, this government is proud to act and show some leadership to ensure that we protect the fundamental rights of access to the very best health care that the world can offer. Australia continues to offer that and will continue to support those processes that do so.

That section of the amendment condemns the government for breaking a specific promise made before the last election not to locate a waste dump in the Northern Territory. I find this pretty amusing, really. Why are we in this position? If you want to talk about people being disingenuous, let us talk about Mike Rann, who agreed to undertake a four-year study after 1998 to ensure that we found the very best place for all Australians. Every state and territory agreed that that was the process. At a few minutes to midnight, Mike Rann said, ‘Let’s have a bit of mischief.’ That is why we are in the very sad position where there has to be some imposition on the Northern Territory. But we tried all other options.

This little network amazes me. We have Clare Martin, who is absolutely outraged that we might have radioactive materials travelling on the roads. They could even go by train, Senator Parry. Wouldn’t that be appalling? How does Mike Rann get his yellowcake into Darwin? By the train—with the full consent of Clare Martin, the Leader of the Labor Party in the Northern Territory. Disingenuous? I do not have a great grasp of the English language, but I am sure that there are some stronger terms that could be applied to that particular set of disingenuous circumstances.

The amendment goes on to talk about the destruction of recourse to procedural fairness. The fairness was over when they reneged on a national campaign that cost millions of dollars and which everybody had agreed to and which was for the benefit of every single Australian because it would have guaranteed that all of our radioactive material was safely stored in a single and sensible repository. The Labor government in South Australia at the last minute said, ‘Sorry, we only gave our word, and that doesn’t really count for a lot.’ It is fairly sad. The last part of the amendment condemns us because we are keeping secret the plan for the siting of our nuclear power stations—when the report came fresh off the press yesterday. But I am not expecting too much of the other side.

It is a fairly simple bill. It clarifies the roles that ANSTO takes in the managing of radioactive materials on behalf of the Commonwealth. It provides us with a clear authority to take back the reprocessing plants, because that was part of the arrangement that we made, and it ensures that the Commonwealth provides further assistance to the states and territories with regard to their compliance regime and their police forces in the unlikely event of an act of terrorism. It is an excellent amendment to a very good piece of legislation, and I commend it to the chamber.