Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the last 30 years, nuclear energy has come a long way. The Greens like to remind us of the Chernobyl disaster, but the fact is that nuclear technology has advanced tremendously since 1986. Nuclear energy in Australia has great potential to contribute to the global movement towards low-emission technologies, and this is widely recognised by experts. Put aside your personal views on the net-zero debate; we're certainly not going to achieve it with only wind turbines and solar panels.

The entire world looks to us confused. They don't understand why we have a moratorium in place on nuclear energy. All we know is that we're now working towards gaining nuclear submarine capabilities, so why not nuclear energy?

In the United States, nuclear constitutes 20 people cent of the energy mix and there is bipartisan agreement in congress about the importance of nuclear energy to helping the US achieve its climate ambitions, its energy security and its sovereignty. President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act has a heavy emphasis on the important role that it will play in the US. I will quote directly from the Office of Nuclear Energy's website:

Momentum is building for U.S. nuclear energy and the investments and tax incentives included in IRA guarantee a commitment to nuclear energy that will continue well throughout the nation's journey to net-zero.

We must get our heads out of the sand and seriously look at lifting the moratorium. Now, I'm not even saying that we should necessarily build a nuclear power plant; we should just lift the moratorium. This way we'll allow industry to explore the opportunities and universities to commence the important work of skilling up out workforce that will be critical for any future nuclear industry here in Australia. We're still having the same discussion here today that we were having when I was born, and the rest of the world is, frankly, leaving us behind.