Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No matter what side you're on in the nuclear debate going forward, there are so many great people I've got to meet as part of this conversation. The New South Wales Nationals Women's Council, ably led by Kellie A Sloane—who, unfortunately for her, resides in my office most of the time—has gone around and got a series of really prominent and powerful Australian women and others to talk about their roles in nuclear. Their skills and devotion and the things they have done are really uplifting.

I had the pleasure of doing a 1½-hour broadcast interview with Helen Cook just a couple of weeks ago. Helen is part of GNE Advisory. She has gone around the world. She's been part of the nuclear regulation approvals process in the UK, the USA, UAE, Turkiye, Bahrain, Denmark and Estonia. She went through a whole lot of work on that, as well as being a single mother of two kids—just the power and the energy it must take to do that.

We also had Olivia Kerr, another fine young Nationals woman, interview Jasmin Diab and Kirsty Braybon. Jas is the president of Women in Nuclear Australia. She's part of the ARPANSA safety committee. They're out there dealing with this stuff all the time. Their level of knowledge and their level of commitment around the world to the things they do—their passion for an emissions-free energy grid, their passion for energy to be out there and accessible for people. It 's really great to see the propensity and the skills we have in Australia amongst these women.

For the next interview coming up—so this will be the third interview in the group—again Olivia Kerr will be running that. Olivia, who is a Nat, is doing a PhD in nuclear engineering at UNSW, and she previously got a Master of Engineering from there also. These are the skills we have. She'll be introducing Grace Stanke, Miss America 2023, who is a nuclear field scientist.