Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in my contribution to this debate on the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010. I will not be able to finish my contribution before we get to question time. Let me start with a few preliminary comments. Some of Senator Scullion’s contribution is accurate, the last few minutes of diatribe are totally inaccurate. If I get a chance, I will try and place some facts and figures on the record.

There is no doubt that this piece of legislation is immensely difficult and has been so for decades for this country and this parliament successively—for previous Labor governments and then a federal coalition Liberal government and now back again to a Labor government. It has been a very difficult and very hard process to manage. Some of the history that Senator Scullion outlined is accurate. Some of that history has been recorded time and time again in not only House of Representatives reports but also Senate committee reports. But what we have before us today is fundamentally a different bill to the one which the Howard government sought and succeeded in getting through this parliament. Thank goodness that following the 2007 election, when we were elected into government, this bill delivers 100 per on part of the promise leading into that election. This bill delivers on our 2007 election promise and if it did not—