Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm honoured to stand and support this matter of public importance, and I congratulate Senator Babet for bringing it forward. The acquisition of up to five nuclear submarines has removed any logical reason for Australia to continue to ban nuclear energy in this country. Sometimes we hear that we can't go down the path of nuclear energy because we have nowhere to store the waste. Well, we're going to now have a high-level waste facility because of the acquisition of nuclear submarines. That hurdle will have already been jumped. That is done. We sometimes hear that it could potentially be too unsafe and there could be some sort of accident or issue. Well, we're going to have up to five nuclear reactors sailing underwater around our coastline, just next to major population centres, and docking in our harbours—no safety concerns about that. It would be completely illogical to legalise the sailing of nuclear submarines right around our coastline while we continue not to allow those same facilities onshore and on land in this country.

We have a massive energy deficit right now. Our energy regulators are warning that will be short 8,000 megawatts of reliable power over the next decade, and that can't be filled by solar and wind; they don't have the dispatchable capacity that we need. With these nuclear subs, maybe we could have an innovative solution: we could dock them in Sydney Harbour and go get a big extension cord from Bunnings! That's 1,000 megawatts of the 8,000 that could come in and provide electricity. But a more logical option would be to actually build an advanced nuclear reactor in this country, as has happened in every settled continent in this world except for Australia. It is only us and the penguins who don't have nuclear energy. Every other settled continent in the world relies on nuclear energy and has done safely for decades. It is about time that we get over this ridiculous paranoia and legalise nuclear energy so Australians can get cheaper power.