Transcript:

Ms PAYNE (Canberra) (13:43): Imagine spending $91 billion on a power station that's years behind schedule? That's what's happening in the UK right now. In 2010, the United Kingdom's minister for energy announced the construction of the biggest nuclear power station in the country, at Hinkley Point C. The cost:18 billion pounds. The year of completion: 2025, this year. That's correct: it was meant to be finished now. So where is it up to? Current projections expect it will be finished some time between 2029 and 2031, and the cost has increased to 46 billion pounds. That's a cost blowout of more than 28 billion pounds, over A$45 billion, and counting—250 per cent of the budgeted cost. Let's remember this has happened in a country with an established nuclear industry, a country that has done this before. Building nuclear reactors is costly and fraught with risk.

Right now, the opposition wants to gamble Australian taxpayers' money on the same reckless path—in seven locations around the country, no less. It's irresponsible economic policy and it's irresponsible energy policy. While those opposite continue with this fantasy—and they've only got two policies, that one and taxpayer-funded lunches for bosses—our government is getting on with the job of transitioning our economy to a renewable future. In just under three years we've approved the construction of 72 renewable energy projects. That's enough to power over eight million homes and create thousands of jobs.