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

Senator Allison seeks to prevent something happening in the future under this government. With respect, in her speech the senator made a number of statements like, ‘If the government did not do this, you could assume that they wanted to do something else’—and I do not know that you can assume those things. Actually, I am being a bit more polite than I should be; I know you cannot. But that might be just a part of the polemics of this matter, and I will leave it be.

Senator Allison, what you seek to do is prevent something happening. What I would say to you, firstly, is that that is against the law at this point. There is already a limitation on importation—although you say ‘by government’, and it is true that, with a sign-off from the Minister for Health and Ageing, that can happen. That is necessary because, while there is a law against importation at this point, that does not mean that someone will not try it or that there will not be some accident at sea and we may need to have that facility available. Consequently, we see it as appropriate for that opportunity to be there.

As I said, it is against the law at the moment. It is an offence under the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations, unless authorised by the health minister. It has been the consistent position of successive governments since the resumption of uranium mining that those countries enjoying the benefits are responsible for managing the wastes. Nothing in the bill changes either the legal status of radioactive material imports or the policy of the Australian government. Nothing in the bill changes those things. If passed, the bill will not authorise ANSTO to import any radioactive waste. It will authorise ANSTO to manage, once returned to Australia, the waste arising from overseas reprocessing of ANSTO spent fuel—and ANSTO will, nonetheless, still need to apply for authorisation to import that waste.

The proposed amendment moved by Senator Allison could undermine a key purpose of the bill, namely, to ensure that ANSTO can assist the Commonwealth, state and territory emergency services in the event of a radiological incident or accident. No activities in Australia generate high-level radioactive waste, so it is not expected that ANSTO’s assistance would ever be required to manage such material; however, we do take very seriously the responsibility to ensure that Australia is prepared for radiological emergencies, no matter how unlikely.

The premise of the proposed amendment is somewhat fanciful, given that the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act prohibits the storage of high-level waste at the Commonwealth radioactive waste management facility. The question to ask is whether the Democrats seriously believe that the government or ANSTO intends to import large quantities of high-level radioactive material for indefinite storage at Lucas Heights. Is that really what you believe? It is certainly not the government’s policy. Frankly, to misconstrue the purpose of the bill—which is in fact to ensure that ANSTO has the necessary legal authority to safely and securely manage the waste—is, I think, more properly described as grandstanding. That is why we do not support the amendment.