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Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Page: 1495

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (13:30): I move Greens amendment (30) on sheet 7037:

(30)   Page 35 (after line 28), after clause 37, insert:

37A Obligation to minimise production of waste

      Despite any other law, any agreement between the Commonwealth and another party or parties involving the production of radioactive waste must be made subject to the condition that each contracting party must take appropriate steps to ensure that the generation of radioactive waste is kept to the minimum practicable.

This is an amendment that I am sure will get late support from both the government and the opposition, so I do not intend to call a division. What it does is provide an obligation to minimise production of waste, and who could possibly disagree with that? I am sure if you are proposing to vote against this amendment you will stand up and pat me on the head and say that I am well intentioned, or that this is a great idea but you will be voting against it.

We are proposing to minimise the production of this material in the first place which, I hazard to guess, is probably the only area of agreement between every party in here in this entire debate, because it is such an intractable headache for people and has been for so many years. One thing we should all be able to agree on is to minimise the generation of it in the first place. It does not absolve us of responsibility to look after what we already have, but let us move away from the misleading concept of disposal towards a sense of stewardship and harm minimisation. Of course, the first thing you would do if that were your interest would be to minimise the production of this stuff in the first place. I strongly commend this amendment to the Senate.