Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is an absolute nonsense. In fact, the committee heard from traditional owners. I will take that interjection. We looked at safety, we looked at security concerns, we looked at alternative site proposals, we looked at native title rights and interests, we looked at local community views and we looked at agricultural considerations. It was an extraordinarily thorough process. It has been going on for many, many years, and the Senate economics committee was just a very small part of it. We received 105 submissions and many more form submissions.

I wish to note—this will be reflected, hopefully, in the chamber's decision in a very short period of time—that there is actually a broad, bipartisan consensus that we must manage our own radioactive waste. It has been accumulating now for over 70 years, largely as a by-product of essential nuclear medicine and research. We need to provide an appropriately effective solution for the management of radioactive waste for future generations. This bill gives effect to the commitment made by successive governments and ministers, including Senator the Hon. Kim Carr, who is in the chamber, and Senator Matt Canavan, to the Australian community to establish a purpose-built national radioactive waste management facility. This will dispose of Australia's domestically produced low-level waste and store Australia's intermediate-level waste for a period of time sufficient for the government to establish a permanent intermediate-level waste disposal facility.

What is this facility actually for? It's critical to our country's medical, scientific and technological advancement, in particular to the continued production and supply of nuclear medicine that, on average, two in three of us will need at some point in our lifetime. Most of us will need nuclear medicine for things such as heart, lung, liver or brain scans or for the treatment of cancer. Some 80 per cent of Australia's radioactive waste stream is derived from the production of nuclear medicine, which is currently stored in something like 100 locations around Australia. As I've said, this has been going on for around 40 years. It's been a very difficult process. It's caused the undertaking of numerous inquiries and numerous processes. It's good to finally see some real progress in the right direction.

Finally, it's really important that, as part of the inquiry process we heard from the community of Kimba. On a personal note, I know that Senator Gallacher, who was deputy chair of the economics committee at that point, was truly grateful for the input we received from a wide variety of stakeholders to that committee. It was a very productive process. I want particularly to thank those from the community of Kimba who put their hand up and stuck their neck out, who will, hopefully, finally get some sort of conclusion.