You see that Labor MPs have been told off for using those stupid cartoons and the jokes and the memes with three-eyed fish and the like. And they've been told off because it is a bad way to counter the nuclear argument, the Labor apparatchiks have concluded. Well, they're finally cottoned on that this is a stupid thing to do.
So Queensland Labor MP Graham Perrott has even gone on the record about this. Now, Graham Perrott has told the Australian newspaper it was important not to alienate people who wanted to have a discussion about nuclear. And he says this, quote, It's not something I joke about because I think you can't be serious about cost of living if you are joking about nuclear power. Power is a serious issue for people. Look, he's spot on, Graham Perrott there. It is a serious issue for people.
And this is Labor again, political and intellectual arrogance. Can't get out of their own way sometimes. And these stupid memes and jokes about the safety of nuclear power, they are just not based in fact, nor are they based in reality. So here are some facts. I've done a whole bunch of digging on this and I did lots and lots of research on it. So since 1945, only about 500 people have lost their lives in nuclear accidents all around the world.
So that's it. In almost 80 years, 500 people globally have lost their lives in nuclear accidents. Now, many of which are from radiotherapy or medical nuclear experiments rather than accidents at power stations themselves. And almost every single one of them occurred before the turn of the century. Now, that's a number that might surprise you, only 500, considering the fears that the community often associates with nuclear energy.
Now contrast that against a much more recent statistic. So in just the past two years, nearly 300 people have perished in fires. Just in the last two years, 300 people have perished in fires sparked by lithium ion batteries. You know, the things they put in electric bikes and scooters.
So let's just break that down. Nuclear accidents, well, of course, devastating when they occur. They've been relatively rare and thankfully infrequent in their fatalities. Now, these incidents, they get massive media attention. They provoke widespread concern about safety and environmental impact. Sure. Yet the actual human toll remains surprisingly low given the magnitude of these supposed events. So,
You've got lithium-ion batteries on the other side, electric bikes and scooters, which have been enabled and championed, mind you, as an answer to climate change. There is no question they are on balance more dangerous to human life than nuclear energy. The last major nuclear power accident was when the Fukushima nuclear power plant was the subject of that tsunami and earthquake back in 2011.
And that was rated as the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. You know how many people died in that? Directly from the nuclear accident at Fukushima. How many do you think? One. And it was from cancer seven years later. In comparison, just two weeks ago, in a lithium-ion battery factory in South Korea, 22 workers died because of a massive fire. 22. How many in Fukushima? One. Seven years after the incident.
Now, will Labor MPs create cartoons with e-scooters or e-bikes catching on fire and spreading this scare campaign around theirs? Of course not, because that's an issue that's got a sanction to be okay by the left of politics. So we're not going to make jokes about e-scooters or e-bikes because they're good for the environment. Well, they're not good for human life.
So how about we have a bit of perspective in evaluating risks associated with different technology? So while nuclear energy evokes deep-seated fears of these catastrophic accidents, the actual number of lives lost has been remarkably low over the decades. While in contrast, the rapid adoption of lithium-ion battery-powered devices...
There's been unforeseen risks that have cost hundreds of lives in just a short few years. Yet why is nuclear, nuclear power being demonised by the Federal Labor Government and e-bikes are not? You tell me. 131873.