Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Can the minister confirm that, this week, the government signed Australia up to the US-led Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, joining the great and glorious Kazakhstan in this group? Hasn’t the government committed Australia to joining a group that will see nuclear fuel leased to countries, then returned to fuel suppliers for reprocessing and then potentially stored in other members’ countries? Isn’t that why Canada, another major uranium supplier, declined the invitation to join the group? Can the minister also confirm that the Liberal Party Federal Council, in June this year, overwhelmingly voted in support of establishing a nuclear waste dump in Australia to take spent fuel from other countries? How can voters trust the government on this issue, when its own party members strongly support Australia taking spent nuclear fuel from other countries to be stored at a high-level waste dump? (Time expired)

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the senator for the question. The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is a US initiative which seeks to develop a worldwide consensus allowing for expanded use of nuclear energy, whilst strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime. We, in fact, welcome the expanded civil nuclear cooperation with the United States. Australia joined the United States initiated Global Nuclear Energy Partnership at a meeting in Vienna on 16 September, and we concluded a joint nuclear energy action plan with the United States on 3 September. Australia supports the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership goal of enabling expanded use of nuclear energy while strengthening nuclear non-proliferation, and Australia has clear interests as a major uranium producer and a strong supporter of the non-proliferation regime.

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is still evolving and I would have thought that it makes eminent good sense for Australia to become involved early in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’s development. The Australia-US nuclear energy action plan helps ensure that Australia stays abreast of the latest civil nuclear energy developments and, of course, it includes cooperation on research and development, nonproliferation, civil nuclear energy skills and technical training, and regulatory issues. It also provides the framework for Australia’s technical involvement in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and the Generation IV program to develop advanced nuclear reactors.

Claims that joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership requires Australia to accept other countries’ spent nuclear fuel or endorse their programs, or indeed to accept radioactive waste, are in fact dead wrong. There is no such requirement. The government’s policy is and will remain not to accept other countries’ spent nuclear fuel or nuclear waste. This policy of course is recorded in our nuclear energy action plan with the United States. The government’s policy on this matter is both longstanding and well known. Australia does not accept nuclear waste from other countries and this prohibition is enacted in law.

Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask a supplementary question, Mr President, of the minister arising out of her response. Can the minister confirm the government has been in discussions with companies interested in setting up an enrichment industry in Australia which, under GNEP, would commit us to taking back nuclear fuel used in other countries? Didn’t the director of one such company state recently that its plans would only go ahead under a coalition government? Under GNEP, won’t Australia be an ideal fuel supplier country, enriching our uranium and then taking back the spent fuel from other countries?

Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thought I had very explicitly answered that question. In fact, I will repeat it. Our policy is longstanding and well known, and we do not accept nuclear waste from other countries. This is a prohibition that is enacted in the law and I do not think I can put it in clearer terms than that.