“Rarely in this state's history has there been so much controversy about an issue as the need for a nuclear waste repository.

“Few understand the part that radiation plays in our lives. There is a need for a public education program by the Federal Government and in our schools to help overcome the widely held fear of it.

“We are exposed every second of our lives to cosmic rays, to small amounts of uranium and thorium in masonry and concrete, radon in our homes, as well as to medical and dental X-rays. The human body has evolved effective repair mechanisms to deal with it.

“Artificial radioactive isotopes are used in medicine for diagnosis and treatment, in agriculture for soil moisture gauges in our wine-growing districts, industrially to measure the thickness of materials on conveyer belts and in rolling mills, to X-ray welds in gas pipelines for flaws, and shipping containers for illicit or terrorist shipments and environmentally to control fruit fly.

“Every time we have a medical or dental X-ray, go to the hospital for a nuclear medicine diagnostic procedure or have radiation treatment for cancer, we are experiencing the benefits of the discovery of X-rays.

“New medical developments are appearing all the time. One example is lymphoscintigraphy, in part developed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which reduces the trauma of malignant melanoma and some breast cancer cases.

“In Australia, most of the radioactive isotopes are produced by the Lucas Heights reactor. Without the modern and economic new reactor presently under construction at Lucas Heights, this would not be possible and we would have to use expensive imports.

“Hospitals or industrial users of nuclear isotopes will continue to use them, even if they must be imported at high cost. Therefore there will still be a need to dispose of radioactive waste. Our modern society would be disadvantaged if these nuclear techniques were unavailable.

“In South Australia, radioactive wastes are scattered in hospitals, universities and various laboratories where they are a hazard to our emergency services in the event of fire.

“If a high activity source such as used in hospitals was maliciously spread, for example, in the city centre, there would be widespread panic and any cleanup would be difficult. These risks can be minimised with best security and minimum cost by coordination between the state and Commonwealth to establish a low-level nuclear waste repository. The agenda of the anti-nuclear lobby is to create a nuclear-free society and stop the new replacement research reactor at Lucas Heights from operating.

“They are seeking to do this by overemphasising the risks, minimising the benefits and concentrating unrelentingly on the fear factor. In particular, they are focusing on the nuclear waste repository which is necessary for the reactor as well as the safe and secure disposal of all Australia's artificial radioactive wastes.

“If they succeed, Australia's scientific and medical advancement will be thwarted.”

I believe that politics is the most important and responsible civil activity to which a man may devote his character, his talents, and his energy. We must, in our own interests, elevate politics into statesmanship and statecraft. We must aim at a condition of affairs in which we shall no longer reserve the dignified name of statesman for a Churchill or a Roosevelt but extend it to lesser men who give honourable and patriotic service in public affairs. It is true that most men of ability prefer objective work of science, the law, literature, scholarship, or the immediately stimulating and profitable work of manufacturing, commerce or finance.

The result is that our legislative assemblies are a fair popular cross-section not a corps d'elite. The first class mind is comparatively rare. We disadvantage young men of parts by confronting them with poor material benefits, precariousness of tenure, an open public cynicism about their motives, and cheap sneers about their real or supposed search for publicity. The reason for this wrong-headedness, so damaging to ourselves, is that we have treated democracy as an end and not a means. It is almost as if we had said, when legislatures, freely elected by the votes of all adult citizens, come into being, “Well thank heaven we have achieved democracy. Let us now devote our attention to something new.” Yet the true last of the democrat only begins when he is put in possession of the instruments by which the popular will may be translated into authoritative action. In brief we cannot sensibly devote only one percent of our time to something which affects ninety-nine percent of our living.