Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Embarrassed they might be, braying on the benches opposite. This is an extraordinary muck-up of business, but there is much more to be said about it. Senator Milne brings in a motion to back up the law which bans nuclear power stations in this country, and perhaps the most senior senator on the government benches, Senator Watson, says he wants clarification as to whether such a law exists.

When you get to the facts on this, it is a very big debating point. The Prime Minister has led the nation into a debate on nuclear power stations in the last six months, and friends of his have flagged to him a proposal to build the first nuclear power station. They have not yet said where, but it sounds like Port Augusta is head of the list. Geelong might be on it, Portland might be on it, and goodness knows where else. Senator Watson says, ‘Where is the law that bans nuclear power stations?’ It is in the Australian radiation protection act and in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, both of which were put forward and passed by this government. Senator Watson supported them here six years ago. Prime Minister Howard supported them six years ago. The debate was in here. And now we have the same government members who supported the ban on nuclear power stations just a few years ago saying, ‘Is there a ban on nuclear power stations?’

What goes on over there? Who has lost the plot? Prime Minister Howard apparently does not know that his government put a ban on nuclear power stations. Certainly Senator Minchin had to have it drawn to his attention by the Greens a month ago because he did not know. Here we have this debate led by the Prime Minister to do something which is illegal. Isn’t that incredible? The Prime Minister himself has put tens of thousands of dollars into the Switkowski report proposing to do something which is illegal in this country.

What are they going to do next? The proposal from the Prime Minister is that up to 25 nuclear power stations be built around Australia, totally contrary to his own laws. He is proposing something that is illegal, to be foisted on the Australian people. Why? Because the same Prime Minister for 10 years has been totally derelict in his duty to this nation and to its future in not addressing global heating and climate change. In fact, he has been making the scenario for the future much worse, much more economically damaging, much more environmentally disastrous, much more socially disruptive through his own negligence, through this government’s negligence.

This morning we have a complete shambles. I say to Senator Watson and other government members opposite: yes, nuclear power stations are illegal because you voted for it. It was your legislation that made it illegal, not once but twice. Do your homework. Come in here prepared. This topic has been put to the top of the national agenda by the Prime Minister, and members of his government do not understand it. They do not know their own history and they do not know that what the Prime Minister is proposing is, in effect, illegal in this country.

Having established that, the extraordinary thing is that we are about to have a vote in which the government endorses the ban on nuclear power stations, contrary to the Prime Minister wanting to have nuclear power stations. Let us see the absurdity of this.

To bring this farce to an end, I seek leave of the Senate so that Senator Watson can withdraw his opposition to formality for the motion and we can get on with the motion being put.