Nuclear Waste

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:46): My question is to the Premier. How much taxpayers' money will be spent by the government in pursuing the Premier's proposal for a nuclear waste dump through a referendum?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:47): There will be no referendum until those opposite ensure that they provide a bipartisan position in relation to this matter. I know that those opposite would like a hot and sweaty debate. I know they would like to be standing out there with those people, painted out, in their gas masks, for a photo opportunity. I know that they are great pictures for the TV, and it is a bit of a cut-through message to be out there with the nuclear waste barrels. That's all great fun, and I appreciate that they will be out there with the bongo drums, making sure that lots of noise is made, and that's fine. That's one way of dealing with this debate.

But the truth is that these matters are on a time line, even having regard to the royal commission's report, which is measured in decades, not months or years. What we have done is open an important discussion about South Australia's future. Given the circumstances South Australia faces, we are exploring many options for the future of South Australia. Many of them we have been able to achieve, some of them have been blocked by those opposite, but one consistent factor in all of the things that we have sought to achieve and the things that we have achieved is that the opposition has said no.

They have said no to every significant change or piece of infrastructure that we have built in South Australia. The Leader of the Opposition has clipped himself to his new friends, who will quickly work out that he is no friend at all and that they cannot rely upon his policy position in relation to this matter, nor can they rely upon his policy position in relation to any other matter, because it could change at a whim. There is only one thing we know about the Leader of the Opposition, the big fact that has been found through this whole inquiry: the Leader of the Opposition will withstand anything except pressure.