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

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by coalition senators today.

In so doing, I reflect upon the—I think we would have to say—herculean attempts to defend the renewable industry in circumstances where we simply don't seem to have clear answers on the total cost of Labor's Powering Australia Plan and the decommissioning of these assets. We know these assets are incredibly cost-heavy to build and decommission, but we can't unfortunately get those answers from the government today.

Every Australian deserves cleaner, cheaper power, and, of course, the cost-of-living crisis is largely driven by this problem, but under this Labor government that is simply not happening. We were promised, as we have said maybe 400,000 times in this chamber over the last 2½ years, cost cuts of $275 to our energy bills, our power bills, per annum. However, what many Australians have woken up to over the last two years have actually been increases of sometimes up to $1000 every year on their power bills. Many Australians might be surprised by that. We on this side of the chamber are not. We told Australians at the last election that it wasn't going to be easy under—to use the correct title—Prime Minister Albanese. It won't be easy under Prime Minister Albanese. And here we are two years later. It's become very clear.

The coalition believes that having a balanced energy mix is important. One of the key attributes of that is going to be our plan for nuclear power. When I walked into this place in 2019, one of the first things I spoke about in my maiden speech was the case for nuclear power, particularly coming from the state of South Australia, which is, of course, home to some of the world's largest stockpiles of uranium. We were the state that produced the 2016 Scarce royal commission, which outlined very clearly and very demonstrably the plan for the nuclear energy fuel cycle. It was a plan to mine uranium, to use it for nuclear energy, for nuclear power and for powered electricity. It was a plan for safe nuclear fuel storage after end of life. It was a plan that ultimately would have provided both my state and this nation billions and billions of dollars both upfront and, of course, in a sovereign wealth fund, which would have meant that our children wouldn't need to suffer from the poverty-stricken future they have under a Prime Minister Albanese government, which they're now tanking under. But, at that stage, Australia was already behind the eight ball in terms of a plan for nuclear energy. The rest of the developed world uses it. The comparable country of Canada uses it very ably, and it turned into a multibillion-dollar-per-annum industry for the people of Canada without a single three-eyed fish or three-eyed bear.

All we get from the other side is juvenile undergraduate memes. We know the Left can't meme. We know they can't. A proper meme is like a political cartoon: it requires a sense of humour, and we just don't get that. All we get from this side of the chamber is childish undergraduate scare campaigns when the truth is that this is safe and effective. Safe and effective—for once, that could actually be true. Who would know?

What we need to get on the record here is that our nuclear plan will provide an effective, cost-effective and crucial pathway for the Australian energy future, providing a reliable point of access for baseload power. Nuclear power is ultimately clean and safe, and it will be cost effective. We will be able to make that clear. We should let the market decide that in due course, but at the moment we can simply say that, with huge reserves of uranium and our ability to mine and sell it to the rest of the world, this is a reliably important part of our future energy mix.

The one thing that was missed in the debate earlier on today about the government's failure to answer the questions about the cost of decommissioning was that, unlike wind turbines and solar panels, nuclear power stations have incredibly long lifespans. They sometimes live up to 60 or beyond years, so these costs are not realised until many years down the track.