Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is clear that this amendment is going to pass, but I want to make a couple of things clear. Firstly, the passing of this amendment does mean that, should there be a desperate need for the storage of some sort of material that later cannot be stored in a safe place like ANSTO, we will be coming back for the names of the people who voted against the capacity to have that storage. I do not look forward to that day, because no-one wants us to be in a hazardous situation and to have no capacity to deal with it. I am absolutely certain that people in the future, if we are in that position, will look back and ask if federal parliament ever considered the need for that. They will look back at these debates and wonder why people opposite supported this amendment. If that does happen, I only hope that all of you are alive to answer for it.

Question put:

That the amendment (Senator Allison’s) be agreed to.