Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I asked Minister Wong about AUKUS. It turns out the mind-boggling 368 billion taxpayer dollars for nuclear submarines doesn't even include the cost of managing and storing nuclear waste. That waste never goes away and becomes a matter for future generations to deal with, and we don't even know the price tag it will carry.

The Australian Naval Nuclear Safety Bill would allow Australia to take on radioactive waste from the US and the UK through the AUKUS deal. This is being kept quiet by the government and, unless the bill is amended, it will leave us open to becoming the world's nuclear waste dump. We are talking high-level and military-grade radioactive waste which is highly toxic and dangerous. After seven decades of nuclear submarines, the US and UK still have no solution for their waste, yet here we are, jumping at the opportunity to take it on. We are actually paying for the privilege of being useful to the UK and the US. We are putting ourselves in harm's way to cosy up to their genocidal, warmongering, dangerous and toxic ways. We want peace, not more war.

Britain already has a history of testing nuclear bombs at Maralinga and the Pacific Islands and has never been held accountable—just another horrifying act in the ongoing genocide of our people. Our tax dollars should be spent on things that sustain life, not destroy it. Our safety and future depend on it. There is no consent to store your toxic waste on our lands.