Ben Small (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset, let me say that like most of my colleagues on the government benches I don't come to this place to stereotype and to divide, by any means, let alone by how someone looks. Yet the arguments in this very important national conversation, as Senator Carr rightly pointed out, are approaching some four decades in the making. Today we've heard people described as white and as black and therefore it follows they hold particular views. I think that's an outrageous affront to the rights of Australians to determine their own world views, to exercise the liberties and choices that we would consider to be in accordance with fundamental values.

Let's talk about what we're actually doing with this important national conversation. What we're actually doing is bringing legislation before the parliament to allow a site to be specified, for a national facility, to enable some $20 million to flow through a community fund and provide support around the local community, where this facility eventually becomes constructed, and provide clear links between the operation of the act and the relevant constitutional heads of power. These are important steps in what I consider to be an essential step for our nation as we seek to develop a nuclear industry. I'm a big supporter of a nuclear industry not only for its potential in power and generation in time but also for the benefits of nuclear medicine and a sovereign capability that, frankly, allows us to participate on the world stage in this way.

The need for a national radioactive waste management facility has been recognised for decades and, finally, this government is getting on with the job of getting it done. The operation of this facility will greatly improve the safety and security of radioactive waste management in Australia. In addition, it will bring science and technology together to allow Australia to join some of its key international partners at the forefront of the nuclear industry. There have been unsuccessful efforts to identify a suitable site in the past, but this proposal allows for the permanent disposal of low-level waste and, temporarily, to store intermediate-level waste until a suitable permanent disposal facility can be constructed. That's expected to take several decades, in part due to the intransigence of the parties like the Greens, who won't engage in a reasoned and rational discussion on matters of national importance.

This is a project that can be used as an important precedent for supporting the creation of a nuclear industry here in Australia, where we are well suited to deal with the challenges and the complexities of handling nuclear substances due to our impeccable track record of high safety standards in this space. It's not well known, for instance, that we've had three nuclear reactors operating in Australia, on and off, for some decades. That is a track record that speaks to our capacity to lead the way in the development of a nuclear industry—