Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Canavan for the opportunity to talk some facts about nuclear and the fact that nuclear is not the right plan for our country right here in Australia. Of course, what Mr Dutton and his coalition have when they talk about nuclear is a $600 billion nuclear wasteland of a plan for our country's energy needs. This is a $600 billion nuclear nightmare that they want to unleash on Australians—a $600 billion nuclear black hole that will not even meet the energy needs that Australians have. This is an idea—a plan, if you can call it that—which would only account for 3.7 per cent of Australia's energy needs. There have been no feasibility studies. We know there have been no geological studies. What the coalition have done is just think up an idea of some nuclear power stations, get a map and plonk them around the country, and call that an energy plan.

This is an idea that, even if it were feasible for Australia, would be decades away, and we know that our coal-fired power stations, which still generate energy here for Australians, are closing. They are due to close in the next decade, and this is not a plan to meet the needs that Australia will have as our coal-fired power stations are set to close. It is a decade away. It is not a solution for our energy needs, and it won't create a single job for a person who works in a coal-fired power station to be able to go to.

The real solution is renewable energy. That is the solution for Australia, and under our government we have got 25 per cent more renewable energy in our grid. We are on track for our plan for 82 per cent renewable energy. We are approving more renewable energy projects than ever before. We are getting cheap, clean, green energy into the grid. This is critical for our future, and this is critical for creating jobs in our regions as well, and it is, of course, critical to meeting the cost-of-living challenges that Australians face right now.

What Australians want to see from us right now, today, in meeting the cost of living challenges that they face is their wages growing and support with cost of living from their government. That is exactly what they are getting from the Albanese Labor government. Under Labor, wages are growing. Wages are growing now at over four per cent. Real wages are growing in our country. We are investing in the wages of our care economy workers. We are closing the gender pay gap in this country. Again, under Labor, wages are moving in this country. We know that those opposite love low wages. We know that low wages were a deliberate design feature of the economy that they presided over. But, under Labor, real wages are growing. Wage growth is running at over four per cent, and the inflation figure now has a 2 in front of it. When we took over, it had a 6 in front of it. We are putting downward pressure on inflation, we are getting wages moving, and Australians are starting to get their heads above water again.

That is also because we are providing cost-of-living relief for Australians: a tax cut for all Australians; historic investment in Medicare, meaning people can see doctors for free; historic investment in cheaper medicines; historic investment in fee-free TAFE; and historic investment in lowering Australians' HECS debt. We are providing energy bill relief. Of course, what Australians are also seeing is that every single one of these measures was opposed by those opposite. Mr Dutton doesn't want to see Australians get cost-of-living relief. If he did, he would have voted for it. Instead, he voted against every single measure of cost-of-living relief that we have provided. Australians don't have to look very far to see what their lives would have been like under the coalition. They just have to see him opposing every single cost-of-living relief measure we have put in place.