Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

We are entitled to know the locations of the 25 reactors that this government intends to build. The people of the Hunter, and the people of the Queensland coast, for that matter. The senator across the chamber interjects. We are entitled to know what his attitude is on the building of nuclear reactors on coastal Queensland. We are entitled to know what the position is on the Hunter and Jervis Bay and on the Victorian coast. What is the situation in South Australia? Does the government intend to build reactors there? Why shouldn’t people have a say on whether or not such reactors are built in their backyards? If it is the case that the government now thinks it has the constitutional power to intervene in local government elections in Queensland, then it will also have the constitutional power to provide the AEC with the authority to conduct plebiscites on the issue of nuclear reactors right across Australia. That is simply the logic that has been put here today, and I would love to hear what this government has to say on that question.