Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE: I'm here today to help Peter Dutton. What we know is that for at least 10 weeks, if not longer, Mr Dutton has known exactly where he will locate his nuclear reactors. But he's been having some trouble telling the Australian people exactly where they'll be. So I'm going to help him out today. What we've got here is a map of Australia. I'm sure Mr Dutton would recognise it. And what I've got here are letters to every one of Mr Dutton's front and backbench, and I'll be writing to them today, inviting them to come and identify exactly where across Australia their nuclear reactors will be.
Because Scott Morrison might have been able to have his Secret Ministries, but Peter Dutton can't have secret nuclear reactors. It is entirely reasonable that communities across Australia know where these reactors will go. We are less than a year from the election. This is an important decision for the Australian people, and they deserve to know exactly where.
And to make sure that we know exactly where - inside each one of these envelopes is an invitation to come and place on this map, a location of a nuclear reactor and indeed, a sticker. So that members of Peter Dutton's front and backbench - some of whom have already ruled in or out a nuclear reactor - can in fact place them on this map. So are we going to have a nuclear reactor in Gladstone?
[PLACES STICKER ON GLADSTONE]
Are we going to have a nuclear reactor in Newcastle?
[PLACES STICKER ON NEWCASTLE]
Are we going to have one of Mr Dutton's nuclear reactors placed right in the heart of Gippsland?
[PLACES STICKER ON GIPPSLAND]
Are we going to have a nuclear reactor placed somewhere in the Barossa Valley?
[PLACES STICKER ON BAROSSA VALLEY]
Again, a location that's been previously identified. Or, you know, Mr Dutton sometimes forgets about Western Australia. Sometimes he wants to take away our GST. Sometimes, he has other wild ideas about the West. But does he want to put a nuclear reactor in Collie, just south of Perth?
[PLACES STICKER ON COLLIE]
Or are there other locations? If I'm wrong, which I might be, Mr Dutton is more than welcome to come and tell us where in fact, his nuclear reactors will go. When is he going to start building them? They've said at some points, they will build them by 2030. They've said that they've got all the costings done. They said they've done a lot of careful policy work. They said at one point in March that the work was just two weeks away. But then we saw nothing. Then they said we'd see it before the Budget. And then we saw nothing. Then we were told it might come out during the Budget Reply. I was in the Budget Reply. I didn't hear Mr Dutton tell us where his nuclear reactors will go. And now, on the last sitting day of this fortnight of Parliament, I think people deserve to know. The Albanese Government has been doing the accountability work. We've fronted up for Senate Estimates last week and this week. It's time for Mr Dutton to front up and do some accountability work and tell us where in Australia will his nuclear reactors go. It's a very reasonable question. And if you believe in democracy, you believe in accountability. If you believe in democracy, you believe in being upfront with the Australian people. And it's time for Mr. Dutton to be upfront about the location of his nuclear reactors.
JOURNALIST: Polling shows that there's actually fairly high support for nuclear in this country. Do you think that it's in fact, your party that's out of touch in terms of what Australians want?
GORMAN: What Australians want is the cheapest forms of energy, and to make sure that we don't get left behind in the transition to a net zero economy and a net zero world. That means making sure we implement the cheapest forms of electricity and things that are ready to be rolled out today. What we are implementing is a renewable energy future. So Australia can be a renewable energy superpower. When it comes to research that might say there's strong support for Mr Dutton's plan, I mean, that just backs in my call - if Mr Dutton thinks this is such a popular idea. Why is he hiding it from the Australian people? If he thinks it's such a popular idea, why won't he front up to the communities where he wants to put these power plants and tell us where they will be? Thank you. My easel will be available of course, all day for those members of the Coalition - but I have some letters to post.
