House debates Questions without Notice
Climate Change
Kevin Rudd Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition
2:15 pm
My question is again to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources. I refer to the minister’s answer to my last question, where he said that he would welcome discussions with Australian Nuclear Energy Ltd. My question to the minister is: has the minister already had discussions with Australian Nuclear Energy Ltd?
Joel Fitzgibbon Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence
Yes or no?
Ian Macfarlane Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources
I know that the member for Hunter is a supporter of nuclear industry, because he said it on the radio. We are always happy to see a proposal of any type in my office, and I have not seen the proposal from this company put before me in my office. As I said, we need to have the debate and there needs to be a bipartisan position. One thing I do not understand is why the Labor Party or some parts of the Labor Party—it is a shame that the member for Batman is not here—say that we can export uranium to our friends so that they can lower greenhouse gas emissions by using it in base-load nuclear power stations, but they do not want to have a debate here in Australia about nuclear energy.