Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Certainly domestically the government have expressed a view about nuclear power—that we are opposed to the utilisation of nuclear power in Australia. I am not sure what the position of those opposite is—they have expressed a range of views—but that is the policy position of this government. There have been quite a lot of discussions about the Clean Development Mechanism and whether or not other forms of technology should be included. Certainly we are on the record on carbon capture and storage—and I appreciate that your party has, I think, a view about that. But we were of the view that that would be an appropriate thing to include in the Clean Development Mechanism as a way of trying to maximise the incentives for technology that we believe the world needs if it is to tackle climate change. I am not aware personally of any detail of what has been expressed in those negotiations by negotiators. I can tell you what the government’s policy position, certainly domestically, is: that we do not agree with a position that says nuclear power is the answer for Australia. We think we should invest in carbon capture and storage and also in renewables.