Barnaby Joyce's scathing two
Barnaby Joyce has labelled the Albanese government "total morons" after striking up a uranium export deal with India.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached a deal on Thursday to export Australian uranium to India for use in the nuclear energy industry.
Speaking on Sky News Australia's The Bolt Report, One Nation MP Mr Joyce said the agreement exposed a hypocrisy within the government.
Host Andrew Bost questioned: "Can you explain to me how this government here bans us from using that very same uranium for ourselves when it's very happy to sell it to India as a weapon to fight global warming? Make that make sense."
"Oh, I can, it's very easy, they're morons - that's why, total morons," Mr Joyce replied.
"I just don't understand this sort of imbecilic approach to nuclear technology, which is abundantly used around every other section of the globe."
Mr Joyce noted nuclear technology "could be a hundreds-of-billions-dollar industry for Australia".
"It's insane. We do have a nuclear reactor, it's called Lucas Heights. It has been there since the 1950s, it is bang smack in the middle of Sydney and no one gives a toss about it.
"But somehow we've got caught in this tribal zeitgeist of the left where you can't say nuclear energy, believing that [it's] plutonium plants.
The One Nation MP said "everyone else is just looking at us and laughing at us".
"We want to be imbecilic, we've deindustrialised Australia with independent power, we decide we don't want nuclear but we do want windmills and solar panels.
"And now we're going to shut down our national highway so we can get foreign-owned wind turbines up to go to foreign-owned intermittent power precincts to provide incredibly expensive power underwritten by the taxpayer through secret capacity investment schemes.
"We can do all that but we can't have nuclear power."
On Thursday, Mr Modi and Mr Albanese announced the new deal during a press conference in Melbourne.
"Australia and India are close partners - and even closer friends," the Australian Prime Minister said.
"Today we can confirm the signing of the Administrative Arrangement to Enable Uranium Exports to India for Peaceful Purposes under the 2015 Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.
"The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector."
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