2016-02-16
Federal Labor Leader Bill Shorten has raised the stakes on moves to establish an international nuclear waste dump in Australia, in praising the work of the South Australian Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.
“The report is a boring rehash of failed ambitions, empty hype and imaginary benefits. It should be read for its insights into the psychology of South Australia’s small but increasingly desperate pro-nuclear lobby, and then it should be composted,” Senator Scott Ludlam said today.
“For Mr Shorten to pretend that it represents a serious-minded analysis of the challenges confronting the nuclear industry shows a remarkable lapse of judgement. Far from being a miracle cure for South Australia’s faltering economy, hosting the world’s radioactive waste sets the state up for colossal open-ended costs for thousands of years after Mr Shorten’s talking points are a distant memory.
“It is hard to believe that this is seriously the best the major parties have to offer South Australians. Spent nuclear fuel is a liability dressed up as an asset. The SA Royal Commission has done its best to get the story exactly backwards, but it is embarrassing to see senior political leaders treating it as though it is a balanced document worthy of further consideration,” Senator Ludlam concluded.