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

I'm old enough to remember when the Labor Party promised a $275 reduction in your electricity bill, and that has not happened. That promise that was run during the lead-up to the previous federal election was unfulfilled, and Australians' energy bills, not to mention their grocery and fuel prices, continue to increase under the oversight of this Labor government. In fact, power bills have now increased by up to $1,000 for many Australians, and there's still no sign of relief in sight.

Furthermore, Labor and the Greens continue to lament this so-called climate crisis, espousing the narrative that, unless we drastically reduce our carbon emissions by 2030, we'll be contributing to the imminent climate apocalypse. That, by the way, for those watching at home, is the climate apocalypse that experts have been telling us for about the last 50 years will occur in the next 15 years. Let's not forget that Australia emits something like 1.16 per cent of the world's carbon emissions. China emits 29.18 per cent and the US emits 14.02 per cent. So, even if we are to accept the narrative that reducing our carbon emissions to zero would be a virtuous thing, I'm not actually sure that we're going to be able to prevent this so-called catastrophe.

But there is an obvious solution to this and to the energy cost issue, and that is the exploration of cheap nuclear energy as a low-emissions answer to Australia's energy crisis. Others have done this in other countries, and, had we done it earlier, we'd be a long way down the track to solving these problems. Australia, as we heard this afternoon, contains 28 per cent of the world's natural uranium resources, which is one of the largest amounts in the world. We export it to other nations all over the world to lower their electricity and energy bills, but we don't do it for ourselves. It makes no sense whatsoever.

This is something that will make life cheaper for Australians. It will make Australia more prosperous for future generations, as was outlaid in the 2016 Scarce royal commission in South Australia, which outlined a plan for the total nuclear fuel cycle, all while alleviating the so-called climate crisis. For Labor to try and shut this down and shut the discussion down is really tantamount to admitting that they know that it's going to work and that it's a good solution.

We've seen all the memes. We've seen the Blinky Bills with three eyes. We've seen the three-eyed fish make its comeback. Even today, I went to my desk to find a letter to coalition members from the member for Perth, Patrick Gorman, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, who wrote to people in this building today with this masterpiece, which has two paragraphs and encloses a sticker. This is the sort of stuff we're reduced to. The sticker looks like it's been cut out by someone, not very well, and printed on a bubble-jet printer. The letter invites us to visit his office and select a location on a map. This is the sort of childish stunt that we're reduced to on a serious issue, an issue which requires a slightly better narrative and discussion than simply childish tertiary politics, frankly.

Not even that. I'll take that interjection, Senator Scarr.

Of course, Labor and the Greens don't want to admit that this long-term investment is going to pay dividends, because it undermines the agenda they've been working towards for so long. What it shows is that, at best, they're ignorant of the facts, and, at worst, they don't want to admit them, because it calls out the ideological nature of this debate.

If you want to reduce the costs of living and reduce the carbon emissions, nuclear energy is a sensible path forward. France is one example of a country that has demonstrated perfectly that this works. They've been doing it since the 1980s. They've enjoyed some of the lowest energy prices in Europe over those decades because of their early reliance on this technology, as have Canada. Canada have a $15 billion industry in nuclear power generation and mining, and Australia has no reason to not be involved in that. As we've said before many times—many of us have spoken about it since day one, and I'm no exception; I spoke about it in my maiden speech—of the world's 20 largest economies, Australia is the only one not using nuclear energy. Thirty-two countries across the world operate zero-emission nuclear power plants, and another 50 countries, as we speak, are looking into it. This is an absolutely—