Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend Senator Babet for his contribution in acknowledgment of what is actually involved when it comes to renewables and solar panels production going into landfill, and the complete lack of understanding about what is being done when it comes to these renewables. But it's not only about using these renewables; it's the fact that we need to build new connectors into the grid. Those opposite don't seem to understand what the national electricity grid is, nor the fact that renewables are unable to be connected at this stage and will require new connections to be built.

This is why I particularly welcome the Leader of the Opposition's announcement yesterday that it is time that we have a grown-up conversation in this country about nuclear power. Everyone over there on the opposite side—in the government and at the end of the chamber—needs to put their big-boy pants on and start to have a conversation about nuclear energy. We've had a nuclear industry for 60 years in this country—ANSTO has been running at Lucas Heights for 60 years—yet we will not look at nuclear energy, which is able to provide baseload, affordable, reliable power.

Those of us sitting here in opposition now actually understand. We're not talking about Chernobyl-sized reactors, like those scaremongers over there. We're looking like small, modular ones, like they use in France—the only country in Europe actually weathering the Ukraine war storm when it comes to energy because 70 per cent of their power is derived from nuclear. Those opposite don't have the intellectual depth or courage to have this conversation, while those at the end of the chamber are more about ideology than they are about reducing emissions. It's all about politics, not producing results. Let's have a big conversation about this. You guys don't even want to talk about it because you're so frightened. It's about time we put the Australian people first and provided affordable, reliable baseload power.