SA Election 2018: Australian Conservatives launch campaign with promise of a nuclear waste dump

BUILDING a nuclear waste dump will turn South Australia into the economic “Saudi Arabia of the south”, the Australian Conservatives say, while comparing billionaire Elon Musk to a character from The Simpsons.

• Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives announce candidates
• SA Election 2018: Your HQ with all SA Election news

A NUCLEAR waste dump will turn South Australia into the economic “Saudi Arabia of the south”, the Australian Conservatives say, while comparing billionaire Elon Musk to a character from The Simpsons.

On Sunday, founder and federal Senator Cory Bernardi used the party’s election campaign launch to call for an end to ego-driven politics and cults of personality.

Senator Bernardi — who is not standing in the SA Election — formally announced the Conservatives’ major policies, centring on reopening the outback nuclear dump debate.

Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi at his party's SA Election launch.

He said the state should “take the ideological blinkers off” and embrace a dump, claiming it would generate up to $6.7 billion in gross state product.

That would in turn allow for $3 billion in annual taxes to be repealed and, over the next 100 years, pour $445 billion into the state’s coffers.

“Imagine that legacy for our children ... to draw on in developing this state,” he said.

“We would be an economic powerhouse — we would be the strongest state in the Commonwealth.”

Senator Bernardi said the Conservatives also favoured permitting all forms of energy production, including nuclear, in a private market unhampered by legislation.

He said renewable and green power were not enough for SA — and nor could the public place all its faith in Mr Musk and his Tesla battery.

Australian Conservative Dennis Hood (left) says @corybernardi's plan to establish nuclear dump will make South Australia "the Saudi Arabia of the South". @theTiser pic.twitter.com/UPpMrfquTI

— Sean Fewster (@SeanFewster) February 25, 2018

“Elon Musk, I am convinced, is the monorail salesman from The Simpsons,” he said.

“When the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, the power doesn’t flow.”

The party’s state leader Dennis Hood said the policy represented a better way for the state and called on the Labor and Liberal parties to back nuclear exploration.

“We could be the Saudi Arabia of the south but the major parties have turned their backs on this opportunity,” he said.

Also on Sunday, Master Builders SA voiced their support for nuclear power as a way to abolish state taxes.

Senator Bernardi formed the Conservatives in May last year, saying he had been “inspired” by Donald Trump’s campaign for the US presidency.

Elon Musk — according to Cory Bernardi.

On Sunday, about 200 financial members of the party gathered at Kent Town to hear its policies and meet the 33 candidates it will field for the Lower House.

Those candidates support further investigation of the conclusions of the Scarce Royal Commission into a nuclear fuel and storage facility.

Such a facility, they say, will provide enough funds to abolish payroll and land tax, stamp duty, the Emergency Services Levy and the NRM Levy.

They say it will also provide $500 million for upgrades to metropolitan and regional hospitals, $250 million for roads and $100 million for emergency services.

Mr Hood said that, since merging with Family First, the Conservatives’ membership was “now approaching levels that the major parties would be happy with themselves”.

MLC Rob Brokenshire said SA was facing its biggest challenges since the collapse of the State Bank in the 1990s, and that the Conservatives had the answers.

He said 20 years of Labor Government “would be a disaster”, noting “even a great Prime Minister like John Howard ran out of puff” after a decade.

Mr Brokenshire said allowing SA Best to hold the balance of power would be even worse.

“If you build a party around an individual, sooner or later it falls apart,” he said.

Senator Bernardi said the Conservatives were united by principals, noting it was “not my name at the top of the party”.

However, he stressed it was still appropriate for a federal Senator to take the lead in announcing state-based policies because he was “a founder” and “from SA”.

“There is no greater example of the failure of experimental politics than SA,” he said.

“SA has suffered more than any state in the Commonwealth because of how it’s been governed and how little that has been challenged.

“We are not asking to run the state, we are asking to help shape the state.”

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