Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

My colleagues have previously spoken about safety and the importance of ensuring that nuclear power plants have the appropriate safety mechanisms. I endorse those comments. I also endorse the comments that Senator Abetz made before me about the need to have a balanced consideration of this matter. Of course, we are all concerned about what happened and the disaster that happened at Fukushima as a consequence of the tsunami. But the other side of the equation is that nuclear power is the source of energy for millions of people around the world.

It does need to be a balanced debate, but balanced is certainly something the Greens are not. Senator Abetz mentioned the United Nations report and cited some statistics from it. It is clear that the Greens do not have a very balanced view as far as nuclear energy is concerned. Their policies are about a nuclear-free Australia. Indeed, they are about a nuclear-free world. One only has to look at their policies to see just how extreme they are. For example, they want to close the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights. Forget the probably millions of people in Australia who have had the benefits of nuclear medicine over time and the good things that the existence of that reactor has been able to provide to Australians on a daily basis. Forget all of this.

Let us look at some of these extreme policies of the Greens. We know about the formal alliance with the Gillard government and the influence of the Greens now that they have control and the balance of power in the Senate. Bob Brown is on the record about the agenda of the Greens and I quote—