Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

There is one other area under active consideration. Wallerberdina Station, near Hawker in South Australia, has been accepted. It is in a further phase of assessment than the nominations we received in Kimba. We are open to taking further applications and nominations from other areas around the country, including on Crown land, but at this stage these are the nominations that we have accepted. We intend now to have a 90-day consultation process in Kimba, after which there will be a vote and an assessment of those support levels.

Senator Xenophon is probably aware that this has been going on for some time—trying to find a centralised facility for low-level and intermediate radioactive waste. I think it is very important for our nation to do this. One in two Australians will benefit from the use of nuclear medicines in their lifetime, and a lot of radioactive waste relates to those products. We currently store radioactive waste on more that 100 sites in this country, so finding a centralised home is necessary and important to the objectives of this government. (Time expired)