Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I said earlier on today, I am incredibly proud to be part of a party and a coalition that has the courage, intellect and ability to still have rational policy discussions and debates on controversial but critically important issues for our nation. There is no more important issue for our nation's future than that of the energy mix that we will have for the next 80 to 100 years. When you have a look at the facts, we have heard so much rhetoric in this place from those opposite such as that the planet's burning. There's been a lot of hypocrisy. We've just heard that from the Greens.

For those who purport to care about the environment, to care about every polar bear, every koala and every tree, that's all right unless you want to put in 58 million solar panels, 3,500 new industrial wind turbines and 28,000 new transmission lines straight through pristine wilderness. The breathtaking hypocrisy of that by those opposite is a complete disgrace. But, when you take the emotion and the rhetoric out of it, as we on this side have done after two years of very considered policy debate, research and discussion, the facts, I think, speak for themselves.

Today, over 400 nuclear power plants are operated safely in over 30 countries globally. We are the only G20 country that either doesn't have nuclear power energy already or sources it from other nations or is now building nuclear power reactors. We are the only one. Is there something that those opposite know that the rest of the world doesn't know? And not only are 30 countries operating 400 of them; there are another 50 nations that are now looking to transition to nuclear power. Why? Because the economics stack up. Remember that this is not a 20-year use-and-replace solar panel or wind turbine. This is an 80- to 100-year investment in guaranteeing safe, clean and reliable power so somebody born today will have safe, clean energy for the rest of their lives with a single power plant in their home state—or it might be two; it depends on where they are. No other country on the planet—not one—is going renewable only. It is insanity. We can already see what's happening to power prices and to reliability with the potential now to run out of gas because those opposite have so distorted the market and have made it a sovereign risk in terms of ensuring our gas supplies into the future.

It is time for a mature debate on this. Our nation has absolutely nothing to fear, and those opposite should have nothing to fear, from a debate. Just to show you how hysterical and how out of touch those opposite are, there is an election on in the UK at the moment. I have the election manifesto for this election of one of the major political parties. It says:

We will ensure the long-term security of the sector, extending the lifetime of existing plants, and we will get Hinkley Point C over the line. New nuclear power stations, such as Sizewell C, and Small Modular Reactors, will play an important role in helping the UK achieve energy security and clean power while securing thousands of good, skilled jobs.

Guess who that was? It wasn't the Conservative Party. It was the Labour Party in the UK. The government's blood brothers and sisters, their comrades, are the ones who are saying, 'Not only are we going to keep our current plants going; we are going to build new ones.' And why? Because they now have third-generation nuclear power plants available. They are safe, they're reliable and, over time, they are absolutely economical.

There are a number of other little dirty secrets that those opposite don't like us talking about or, in fact, for anybody else in the Australian community to talk about. It's not only the facts, which are very stark; it's also things like slavery. Think about this. Those opposite—Labor and the Greens—know only too well that every single piece of new energy technology and the components, minerals and resources that go into them are made with the enslaved labour and the forced labour of millions of people, mostly in China. They know that every single one of these 3,500 wind turbines—every blade and every component—is made somehow by the hands of women, children and men. Not only do they know that; they also know that, of the 58 million solar panels that they are planning, every single one of those has slave labour riddled throughout its creation. They know this, but they are doing nothing—nothing!—to make sure that whatever we go ahead with in Australia in terms of new energy technologies, whether it's the Teslas we import, Chinese electric vehicles, lithium ion batteries, the anodes, cathodes and everything that goes into this equipment or the critical minerals, is not done off the back of millions of Uyghurs in forced labour internment camps or Tibetans, who are increasingly impacted. Eighty-five per cent of Tibetan children are now taken away from their family members into Chinese boarding schools where they lose their identity and their language. They are then removed into forced labour camps, farms, mine sites and processing plants to produce the equipment that you want to destroy our own environment with. Yet you say nothing. Shame on you.

Certainly we need to use renewables here in Australia. We have never said anything different, and in government we had a fine record in this area. But you are not calling it out. You are allowing this to occur. To produce what we need here will require 58 million solar panels for the first 20 years alone, never mind the next four lots needed for the same life of a nuclear power plant. How many more slaves are China going to have to source to fill your supply requirements? Millions more. And we haven't even talked about the North Koreans. The North Korean government sells indentured slaves to produce products such as this across China. Yet you say nothing. Shame on you.