If anyone is looking for a policy to liven up the election campaign, Bob Hawke has an idea: make Australia the repository of the world's nuclear waste.

''It's a no-brainer,'' he says. ''If you've got the safest geological sites in the world, why haven't you got the moral responsibility to make them available?''

Little time to relax: The in-demand Bob Hawke and his wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, now promoting a new book, at their home in July. Photo: Tim Bauer Credit:Tim Bauer

Mr Hawke has made the argument before, and it's the one issue he raises when asked if he has achieved all he hoped for in the 22 years since he was prime minister.

''It could change the whole economic future of this country,'' he says. ''We have the world's safest geological sites in the Northern Territory and north-west Western Australia. We could make the world a safer place and totally change our fiscal position by creating an enormous continuing source of income, then you'd apply some of that income to environmental and Aboriginal causes. But no one's got the guts.''