Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to speak to this matter of public importance from Senator Sharma, and I want to address the cost of living and in particular energy prices. There is a very sad story in today's Courier-Mail about a local fish-and-chip shop, one that I go to. It is closing down because of tough times. It is closing down because of the increasing costs of everything that goes into operating a fish-and-chip shop. I'm particularly saddened by it because it was the fish-and-chip shop where I introduced my children to Pasito. This was a fish-and-chip shop that stocked Kirks soft drinks—a great Queensland company. They stocked creaming soda, Pasito and ginger ale—three of my favourite soft drinks. Let me tell you, when I say to the children, 'We're having fish and chips tonight,' the first word out of their mouth is 'Pasito'.

You may wonder what that's got to do with the cost of living. Well, I'll tell you what: going out to have some fish and chips on a Saturday night with a little bit of Queensland made Pasito is priceless. That stuff is priceless. I think when we talk about the cost of energy and the cost of living we need to understand that there is a human element to this. And when we lose our small business we lose a part of what makes this country great—the little battler out there trying to make a living, trying to stand on his own two feet and not have to bend over to the big end of town and be told what to do. There is nothing greater in this country than standing on your own two feet and running a small business. Yes, it causes a lot of stress and heartache, but at least you're standing on your own two feet and having a go. That's what built this country—the battlers who get up every day and put their nose to the grindstone and have a go.

But we're obviously getting very antagonistic about whether we go nuclear or whether we don't go nuclear. I've always been one to look at real-world situations. I know in a previous set of estimates I asked the former head of the CSIRO, Larry Marshall, if he could provide me a model to show me how they calculate net zero. Mr Marshall replied, 'Which one?' He said that there are 40 different models. When we talk about the cost of nuclear, it's very important that we try and look at real-world situations rather than the modelling that's being provided by the CSIRO. If we go and look at something like the International Energy Agency, they—unlike the CSIRO, who thinks nuclear is the most expensive form of energy—don't base their forecasts or whatever on models. They look at real-world data. They think that nuclear energy is the lowest-cost form of energy. If we look at the situation last year in Finland, a country that just built its first nuclear reactor, we see energy prices decline.

The other aspect of nuclear that I am interested in is the technology that it brings. I was recently on a public works committee and we went and visited Lucas Heights. It was a very exciting day, looking at all the technology that nuclear brings in terms of nuclear medicine, for example, and how the different isotopes can identify different forms of cancers and stuff. There is a knowledge base to this. You may find this hard to believe, but I think we need to look at unlocking the energy in those higher-molecular-weight atoms like uranium, plutonium and thorium. Say we could somehow, in the future, find a safe way of unlocking that energy whereby you put that into a battery that, instead of running for, say, 400 kilometres and then taking four to eight hours to recharge, you can use it in a car and it could last for a year or two. Then you wouldn't have to wait to charge your car after every 400 kilometres, or you wouldn't have to fill up your car with fuel at all.

NASA sends probes beyond Mars using the technology used in nuclear energy. If we can take that technology that gets probes out beyond Mars and beyond and somehow convert that into day-to-day use, that is something that I think Australia, with the world's largest reserves of uranium, should be looking at investigating. I'm pleased to support this motion from Senator Sharma, and I'm pleased to have a leader who has the courage of his convictions to fight for something that we believe in.