Thursday, 20 June 2024

Nuclear energy

Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (19:09): (988) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources. We all agree that energy policy should be geared towards providing the cleanest, cheapest and most abundant sources of energy, but I also believe that it should be based on objective science and economics, which means being open to new information. Personally, I think that nuclear has to be part of the answer. Gas, wind and solar are just not going to cut it. Nuclear is safe and clean, and other countries have been using it safely for decades. Sure, it is going to be expensive to set up, but not in the long run, not when you compare it to the permanent stream of taxpayer dollars and the price-modelling gymnastics that it is going to take and does take already to make wind and solar look competitive – and that is without mentioning all of the waste from them in physical products. This government has trashed the coal and the gas industry, not to mention good farmland, in our regions. Yes, it got them their inner-city votes, but people cannot pay their bills and they are being told to prepare for blackouts. So I ask the minister: will she take ideology out of energy and allow science and economics to decide on nuclear in Victoria?