00:00The AUKUS decision is the most momentous and expensive decision ever made by any Australian
00:07government in the modern era. It is a decision that asks all of us to fully understand the
00:15implications of what is contained in that decision and to provide the opportunity for Australians
00:22right across the political spectrum and from all walks of life to be able to ask those questions
00:30and to be heard and submit to a public discussion about this massive expenditure.
00:39Now, the irony is that we are launching a public inquiry in Parliament House where there has been
00:45no substantive debate about AUKUS at all, at all. And so it's consequent upon us, and the other
00:54Commissioners standing with me, that we provide that opportunity for Australians to ask the questions,
01:01to have in a transparent way their concerns or queries noted, to hear from experts who can provide
01:10us with additional information and material, to hear from the government, if they so choose,
01:16to appear before this inquiry, and to provide that information to all Australians in a way that is
01:23accessible and understandable and helps inform them about what is happening now and what could
01:29happen in the future. Because the costs of AUKUS are so great, the fact that it relies upon the
01:38cooperation into the future of two other sovereign governments raises a degree of risk and complexity
01:47that is unlike any other decision taken by Australian governments in the defence realm.
01:54I see no evidence at this point in time that either the American submarine building capacity
02:01nor the United Kingdom submarine building capacity can deliver AUKUS to Australians, albeit that we are
02:10already committed to paying them to do that. I also hold great concern standing here on First
02:17People's Country about the fact that there is no provision or plan at all in the public domain
02:25to identify how the safe disposal of medium and high-level radioactive waste is to be given effect
02:34to over the next 40 or 50 years. The United States still does not have a safe and permanent storage
02:43solution for high-level radioactive waste such as is generated by nuclear submarines. And then there's the
02:52potential and possible impacts on people who have already borne the consequence of decisions taken in
02:58the past by governments around nuclear matters.
Comments