Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks for the reminder, Chair. I move Greens amendment (2) on sheet 7037:

(2)   Clause 4, page 3 (line 1), after “1998”, insert “that is of domestic origin”.

[radioactive waste of domestic origin]

This amendment will have the effect of putting beyond doubt what I take is a genuine assurance from the minister. We probably see eye to eye on many of these issues as Western Australians who went through the same campaign. I appreciate the way the minister has conducted the debate. It has been conducted with a great deal more courtesy, sensitivity and intelligence than was displayed when it was debated in the House. I do not propose to unnecessarily detain the committee's time with these amendments. I took the minister on advice yesterday. We began moving away from general questions and towards specific clauses in the bill, and that is effectively what I took up when we resumed debate this afternoon. We are on the second amendment. There are a number. I am not going to apologise for that. This is a deeply flawed bill that should not have been debated in the chamber, particularly with a Federal Court hearing on the land tenure itself scheduled for less than a month away. I canvassed these opinions in detail the week before last, in that the government had pulled the bill, to have the good sense and the courtesy to the people that it has put on the front line and targeted, and that we would be resuming this debate. I just want to be very clear: if the Federal Court finds in favour of the land council and the Commonwealth government finds that in fact the land has been ticked through properly and that their obligations under the land rights act have been met and so on, my arguments relating to remote dumping—whether it be in Senator Scullion's electorate, the minister's or mine in South Australia—will stand. The arguments against shoving this stuff out of sight, out of mind will stand no matter what happens, no matter what the fate of the Muckaty site. So the minister is free, as the Manager of Government Business here, to consider his options if he thinks that this is taking too long. But I make no apologies whatsoever for the fact that if this were not such a dodgy and rotten bill it would not need so much surgery. I will be more than happy if the minister wants to report progress—I will even offer to do so myself and adjourn the debate, if that is the way we want to go. I am happy, otherwise, to simply move through the amendments.

The reason—I do not think I digress—that I raised the issue of Pangea, raised the issue of remote dumping, is that this amendment goes directly to the issue of imports of high-level spent fuel from elsewhere. I look forward to Senator Scullion's support when we put this one to vote, because I know he does not want to see his electorate subject—the Territory, of all places, whose economy relies in a large part on tourism—to spent fuel from nuclear power stations overseas arriving—

Senator Scullion interjecting—

I trust you are not suggesting that that is of lesser importance, Senator Scullion.