Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz said that. Just a few minutes ago he said that as far as he was concerned the Labor Party is not wanting to support nuclear reactors, clearly the Greens do not, and he was hoping that that would be rethought. It is coalition policy and Senator Abetz has made it clear. In the face of climate change, getting nuclear reactors is so ridiculous, and in face of the disaster that has been Fukushima it is strange that anybody could be talking about promoting nuclear energy. There we had Ziggy Switkowski doing just that. He did not go and stand outside Fukushima, though, did he, when he was busy talking about the low level of risk. He should have gone straight there if it were so low-level risk. But no, it is the Japanese people who are suffering because of this.

I hope that at this meeting in the United Nations tomorrow they will not only consider this but look at the IAEA and say that this organisation needs to split its responsibilities for looking at nuclear proliferation and for its promotion of nuclear as a technology. They need to split the regulatory authority from the promotion, and that is one of the very positive things that should come out of this meeting tomorrow.