Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

No, mate. You're wrong. I don't respect the way your party is choosing to bring up the AUKUS endeavour in a vain attempt to shore up your energy plan, which is risky, expensive, uncosted and a consequence of the anti-renewables obsession of your leader. I am, and have been since we were briefed in opposition, an advocate for AUKUS—in my party, publicly and in the country. I have made clear our support for the project and our belief in the safety of this technology in nuclear submarines, operating as it has in the Virginia class and others for decades. But to try and bring AUKUS, the biggest endeavour this country has ever engaged in, into a pathetic political fight, in an attempt to shore up a policy that you're embarrassed by, is really the height of hypocrisy. It really is. It is beneath, frankly, the dignity of some on that side who understand the importance of AUKUS and the importance of bipartisanship. (Time expired)

Honourable senators interjecting—