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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-03-22 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

NUCLEAR INDUSTRY

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:22): Today we have seen the Deputy Premier say that the policy of the Labor Party in South Australia on the nuclear industry is perfectly clear. That is more than anybody else in his caucus could claim, because the policy is anything but clear. I am going to take a few minutes to explain why the policy of the Labor Party is not clear, and what is going on in the Labor Party, because the party has become quite dysfunctional and everybody is jockeying for positions—principally the position of premier and the position of deputy premier.

We are having a generational change in the Labor Party and we have some new players, some new faces. The new Minister for Mineral Resources Development came out yesterday and called for South Australia to embrace a nuclear enrichment industry in this state—something that the Premier has argued against all of his life—but we have the minister, just newly appointed to that portfolio, who came out and said that South Australia should have an enrichment industry. So we know what he thinks.

We have another new minister, the member for Newland, who is on the record, writing in The Australian a few years ago:

It's time that we in the ALP gave up pretending that nuclear energy is Satan's power source of choice, because it's not working. It's time we stopped repeating the myth that waste is an issue that can't be dealt with.

That is nuclear waste he is referring to. He goes on to say, 'Are we really going to let an ideological hangover from the Cold War stop us from fixing this thing?' That is what the member for Newland wrote—that is what he thinks. So, he is a sound supporter of the nuclear industry, as we all know.

The member for Bright, who has just been left off the front bench—she just missed out—is on the record as saying, in August 2009 when she came back from—oh, Madam Deputy Speaker! You are on the record as saying on radio in Adelaide:

If we want that, cleaner, healthier, better energy, that will be sustainable for 50 years and longer then maybe we do have to move towards a nuclear future.

That is what the member for Bright said. So, I think we are all pretty certain that the other members of the right, those who are moving up the food chain in the ALP, are of a similar mind. The Deputy Premier, I suspect, is of a similar mind. The Minister for Energy (the member for Napier), I suspect, is of a similar mind—in fact, I am sure that he is of a similar mind.

What has happened is that there has been some serious jockeying between the left and the right in the Labor Party post the last election when minister Weatherill was the first one to put his hand up. He saw a glimmer of hope for the left and put his hand up to vie for the deputy leader's position because he saw that the existing deputy leader was terminal—but he did not quite get there.

The forces in the right saw that and said, 'We've got to do something about this.' They mustered their forces together and they have taken over the ALP. This is the new right, the new young and up-and-coming right—the members that I have just talked about who believe in nuclear energy. What have they done? They ousted the then deputy premier because they knew that he was terminal. Everyone in the state knew that he was terminal.

They have ousted him. They have collectively taken over the positions of power and they have ensconced themselves on the front bench. Now they are looking up the other end of the front bench and they have said, 'We still don't have the Premier's position. How are we going to do that? We're going to send a very strong message to the Premier that his position is also terminal.'

The one thing that he has always fought against is a debate on nuclear power. So, out they come yesterday and say, 'This is where we're going. We're going to embrace the nuclear industry.' The really interesting thing is that the former deputy premier, who got no support from the Premier in round one of this movement, has decided that he will give a bit of a backhander on his way out. He has come out and supported the new right, because in doing so he has been able to get one back at the Premier. He knows that the Premier is terminal.

He upped the ante yesterday. The minister for minerals only claimed that we should be embracing a nuclear enrichment industry. The former deputy premier said, 'No, no, no. We should be debating the nuclear industry. We should take the step to build a nuclear power station'; and when asked about the Premier's attitude, he said, 'The Premier is entitled to his view.'

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And I am glad that you finished your sentence. Thank you very much, member for MacKillop. The member for Reynell.

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