Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In continuing my remarks on the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2006, I would like to briefly conclude the comments I was making before being rudely interrupted by Senator Kemp prior to question time. I was explaining to the Senate that the Howard government were not the only ones being deceptive about nuclear safety issues. I was in the process of pointing out that the obsequious and fawning toad Piers Ackerman has criticised the Labor Party for its concerns about the potential dangers posed by nuclear reactors. In an article in the Hobart Mercury on 19 June 2006, he had this to say:

Albanese talked about nuclear safety as if every one of the 440 nuclear reactors currently operating around the world was a ticking bomb. He even had concerns over Lucas Heights.

Unfortunately, the toad went on to say:

If he knows something that the workers there don’t, he should outline his concerns to the staff there - or apologise, and shut up.

How very touchy. Piers Ackerman is either deceptive or very ill informed. To be fair to him, it seems his only source of information is to grovel for scraps off the Prime Minister’s desk. If he ever bothered to do some independent research of his own, he might learn that Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor recorded no less than 13 safety breaches in only 18 months prior to his article.