Daniel Wills: Liberal leader Steven Marshall revives internal doubts with captain’s call on nuclear dump

WHAT a difference a few days makes. On Friday, Opposition Leader Steven Marshall had his party in a spin after casting grave doubts on the merits of a nuclear dump. Then he destroyed any hopes of it.

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WHAT a difference a few days makes.

On Friday, Opposition Leader Steven Marshall had his party in a spin after he made comments to The Advertiser casting grave doubts on the merits of a nuclear dump.

Before lunchtime, he had destroyed any hopes of nuclear storage in the state by pulling bipartisan support for continuing to pursue it.

And all of it was done without taking a vote in an unpredictable partyroom.

There was serious consternation in Liberal circles at the weekend.

Many hardheads wondered why they had taken such a strong position, which was against the views of both its business and electoral base, at a time when Labor was doing a fine job of sawing its own leg off without any help.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall in Parliament during question time. Picture: Calum Robertson

Long-standing doubts about Mr Marshall’s tactical nous were revived and Liberals waited, expectant that a Premier who has beaten them in most of the big moments was about to do it again.

However, the bizarre events of Monday have reversed much of that.

Mr Weatherill’s peculiar press conference to pitch a nuclear referendum at a date to be determined, while taking no serious steps to bolster the business case, came just as Liberals were meeting to form a position on Mr Marshall’s captain’s call about burying the dump for all time.

MPs canvassed yesterday now back the decision to drop the dump.

Some came to the view over genuine fears around the finances, while others just find the politics simply too salivating.

And if everyone now digs in, we head to an election where both sides will find themselves on an unfamiliar side of the nuclear debate.

The Liberals will be in bed with the Greens and Labor would be fighting in support of something it has opposed for decades, while many MPs still do.

And most bizarre, it would be over a dump that will now never happen whoever wins because it is now so politically toxic that no serious country would tip a cent into making it a reality.