Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question today is addressed to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Minchin. Does the government consider Russia’s record in nuclear facility safety, nuclear waste management and nuclear nonproliferation to be exemplary?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I feel somewhat constrained to comment on that question in any detail, given my lack of a brief and the sorts of issues that that question raises—and certainly, as Minister for Finance, I do not want to cause any diplomatic offence to anybody. I am not sure where Senator Milne is coming from, but I suspect that she may be talking about Chernobyl; I suspect that is the basis of her question.

Many of us have read and studied the circumstances surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. I have certainly read a very instructive book by a Russian journalist and have seen a documentary on that particular episode. The matter has been exhaustively studied and looked at by world authorities. I think it was a great tragedy. Indeed, it really was one of the factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, because it exposed the shortcomings of due diligence, transparency and good governance in the Soviet Union in that a reactor could be built in that fashion without any of the proper safeguards and checks that would be normal in Western democracies. That is in stark contrast with the proud record of nuclear power station operation and construction that is the norm in Western countries. France gets most of its power from nuclear power. There are nuclear power reactors operating around the world very satisfactorily. There is no doubt and no denying that Chernobyl was a complete and utter disaster with dreadful consequences for Western Europe.

I am sure that Senator Milne, if she is interested in this subject, will have studied the particular causes of that disaster, the disasters and the tragedies surrounding the construction and operation of that reactor and the nature of the type of reactor that was involved and that is no longer built and/or operated in any other country in the world, as I am advised. I am not an expert on the current situation with Russian management of the construction and operation of nuclear reactors and I do not want to make glib comments on the run about that subject, but I think one should draw a very big distinction between what occurred in the then Soviet Union with the construction and operation of nuclear reactors and the very proud record that is the case in most Western democracies, where the governance, transparency and safety standards that apply to reactors are exemplary.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. In view of the government’s lack of due diligence in regard to nuclear facility safety and nuclear waste management, as exemplified by the government’s answer, can the minister explain why the government is meeting Russian officials and nuclear industry representatives this week to negotiate the necessary arrangements to facilitate the export of uranium from Australia to Russia? When does the government expect to conclude the export agreement, and how many and which countries will access Australian uranium via Russia as part of this agreement?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia probably has the strictest standards with respect to the export of uranium of any uranium-exporting country in the world. We only export to those countries that are signatories to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and those countries with which we have bilateral safeguards agreements that, as I say, meet the strictest standards in the world, which are those we apply to the export of uranium.