Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by the government today in relation to the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. It's extraordinary to be standing here today when the Labor government has in fact laid waste to the news that the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility would be kept. The government has declined to appeal the decision and has effectively, in the process, junked a careful, considered and extensive 10-year process to establish this nuclear waste facility in the northern aspect of South Australia, my home state, near the town of Kimba, which was due to be the beneficiary of a very generous $30 million, or so, incentive package in order to host that site. In so doing, the Labor government has not only torpedoed that extra funding for the local area and therefore put businesses in the area in jeopardy; it's also now put into doubt the nation's nuclear submarine program, and put that in jeopardy.

It needs to be remembered that, in addition to those two matters, this government has given itself an incredible headache going forward in terms of what is to be done with the 13,000 cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste and, I believe, 4,300 cubic metres of intermediate-level nuclear waste. We need to understand here that this is not, as those against this proposal like to portray it, like you would see in The Simpsons, with radioactive drums of green ooze. This is very low-level—very intermediate-level—nuclear waste, which has really come as a result of the use of nuclear medicine—people who have the terrific benefit of that sort of care and treatment rely on this. But there is now no real future plan for this. We saw that it took 10 years for the previous coalition government to get to this point, through careful and considered consultation with the community.

But this is what happens when you have a government that is more interested in local, factional partisan politics than it is in focusing on the national interest. This is all, of course, on the eve of Labor's National Conference next week, and it's all about appeasing the party's radical left—people like Senator Ayres here, who would, presumably, be against this. Why would you want to see it go ahead? All it would do is provide a benefit for the locals. It's not in the interest of South Australia, I'm sure.

Of course, it does leave the people of Kimba high and dry. We know from the work that was done by the coalition government that the consultation was quite extraordinary and the Kimba community supported this through a number of mechanisms. They were asked this on a number of occasions, but the broad community support was demonstrated through a range of indicators, including 61.6 per cent of people in the Kimba local council government area supporting the facility, according to the now dismissed Kimba ballot, which was independently facilitated by the Australian Electoral Commission. And 59.3 per cent from surveyed local businesses in Kimba supported the prospect of this nuclear waste facility going ahead, as well as a similar amount—a slightly larger amount, with 59.8 per cent—from local submissions. One hundred per cent of the neighbours who shared a boundary with the nominated site at Napandee actually supported the facility. Why did they do that? It's because they are better and more broadminded than those opposite. They understood that not only would it be good for the local community; they understood that a purpose built facility was essential to supporting our nuclear medicine industry, with more than 90 per cent of the waste produced in Australia being linked to nuclear medicine. That waste at the moment is stored at Lucas Heights and about 100 other locations all around the country—at hospitals and other facilities. Every Australian, sadly, is going to draw on nuclear medicine in their lifetime, so there does remain a critical need for this project and for a national radioactive waste management facility.

The reality for this government, though, having not progressed this or taken up the good work of the previous coalition government, is that they now have a giant political headache. What they seek to do with this facility as we move forward— ARPANSA require it—we will see.