Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ludlam for his question, and I thank him for providing advance notice. It is quite clear that the Greens are asking serious questions on these matters, and are seeking serious answers—unlike those opposite. Let me say, straight up, that the government will honour the promise it gave in September last year. Minister Ferguson has advised that we will repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005. We will base future decisions about waste management on solid, agreed science and we will not be making decisions without proper consultations with state and territory governments and local communities. The government will not be taking piecemeal steps or making ad hoc decisions on radioactive waste management. We want a total package to solve this problem once and for all.

That is what Minister Ferguson is working on. The need for a national radioactive waste repository is clear, and it has been since another colleague of mine, Mr Crean, started working on this project in the early 1990s. Radioactive waste is already stored at over 100 different locations around Australia: in government stores, in universities, in hospitals and in factories.