Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020. I want to go back a bit in history so that the chamber's aware of how we got to where we are today, because the bottom line is that this bill is a bit of a ruse, a facade. I need to ground that properly in order for people to understand exactly what I'm talking about.

We'll go back to 2012, the bill where we're seeking to establish a national radioactive waste management facility. I might point out that I'm in favour of such a facility. I think we need a facility. We do need to take responsibility for our own radioactive waste. In terms of the safety aspects and the philosophy, I'm not, in any way, a person who's fearful of radioactive material. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person in this place who has spent weeks sleeping within the distance of this chamber of a nuclear reactor on US submarines, when I spent time on them. So it's not as though I'm concerned about that side of the ledger. If I look at the process that we've gone through to select a site, that's where I have some major concerns.

Firstly, the concept behind the whole process is fundamentally flawed. Instead of selecting the best site for a facility in Australia, we kind of had a raffle and said, 'Who wants to have a site in their backyard?' or 'Who wants to have a site on their land?' Of course people put up their hand, but that's not the best way to select the best location. It's like trying to say, 'Let's build a highway, and we'll go out and see who wants to have their house knocked down to have the highway run somewhere.' That's not the way in which you tackle a project. You work out the best route and then you deal with the issues along the way. That's not what we've done in this process. We've just said, 'Anyone who wants to stick up their hand, we'll have a look at your property and see if it fits.' It's not the best way to do it.

I can see Senator Dean Smith across there. He's a Western Australian senator who perhaps supports the facility. I'm guessing here. Places like Leonora in Western Australia could well be a site. There are proponents that are pushing for that. I went to Leonora, Senator Smith. I went there, had a good look at it and spoke to some of the locals, and they said that they were interested. In fact, they nominated, but the nomination was cut off. My point is that what we should have done is look around the country and ask, 'Where is the best site? What are the best characteristics for a site for a radioactive waste management facility?' I've clearly touched a sore point, because Senator Smith rarely interjects across the chamber.

Having picked a bad way to do this, the government then committed to the idea that they would not put a facility at a location unless there was broad community support. Broad community support is what they promised. You know what? When a minister of the crown stands up and says, 'I'm going to put this facility in a place where there is broad community support for it,' people are entitled to expect they can put trust and confidence in what the minister says—that that is the criterion against which a decision would be made. Initially the government did some polling, using a private company, and came up with some numbers. They weren't very happy with the numbers—and at this stage there were a few different sites—so they upped their effort. They started bringing people in and taking people to ANSTO. Interestingly, as they travelled, they brought a bunch of experts to places like Kimba. I concede that the government did spend money to do that, but they didn't bring any contradictors. There were lots of contradictors along the way that wanted to offer a differing opinion, but the government wouldn't assist them in getting there. I might point out that at this time it was Minister Canavan at the helm. Anyone who knows a bit of history about Senator Canavan knows that his first political party was the Marxist party. That's on the record. He was a member of the Marxist party. As much as you find that unbelievable, that is that case.