Clive Palmer says South Australia is a backwater but nuclear power would restore our fortunes

Clive Palmer says South Australia has become an economic “backwater” — but nuclear energy could make our state great again.

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South Australia has become a “backwater” devoid of enterprise, industry and investment, United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer says.

Mr Palmer spruiked the need for South Australia to turn around the state’s fortunes with nuclear power during his first federal election campaign visit to SA on Thursday morning.

Pressed on his policy, Mr Palmer said nuclear reactors could be built in SA by companies from the US, France or Germany, and called on the investment to be guaranteed by whichever party formed government.

The Sunday Mail revealed in March that Mr Palmer would pledge to build a nuclear reactor in SA as part of his final pitch to win over voters in the state.

Mr Palmer said he “guaranteed” the building of a nuclear reactor would be a priority if UAP held the balance of power in the Senate, as he has predicted.

However, new nuclear reactors were banned in Australia in 1998 and the State Government and Opposition are both opposed to a nuclear industry being created in SA, after a citizen’s jury voted against a proposal to investigate it further in 2016.

“When I lived in Adelaide for two years in the 1970s we had a prosperous South Australia, we had a vibrant economy and it was the centre of the nation,” he said.

“And now it’s a backwater and many South Australians don’t have any future themselves.”

United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer at the Playford Hotel in Adelaide. Picture: Kelly Barnes/AAP

Mr Palmer also doubled down on his contentious plan to scrap the Murray Darling Basin Plan and start again.

He did not present a solution as to what a working plan would look like, but said it should focus on “practical solutions and not be run by bureaucrats”.

“What I’ve just told you about the system, about people building dams and selling the water rights, you know it’s a rort and you know it’s wrong. It shouldn’t be too hard for people to say you can’t do that anymore,” he said.

Mr Palmer said his party was aiming to win the 10 South Australian House of Representatives seats it is running in and expected the party’s popularity to spike in the two weeks before the election.

Exclusive Advertiser/You Gov Galaxy polling released this week for the seat of Sturt showed UAP candidate Hedley Harding was attracting 9 per cent of the primary vote.

“All the seats in SA we’re seeking to win and that’s why we’re here now,” he said.

“We’ll be running an extensive campaign, we haven’t yet started it. There’s been a little bit of preliminary television here in SA but in the next two weeks we’ll be making it very clear that it’s important for every South Australian to support us because of our pledge to bring nuclear energy to South Australia.”

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said the Liberal Party’s preference deal with UAP could be “disastrous for SA”.

The Coalition has placed UAP second on its Senate how-to-vote cards in SA.

“The Liberals have been treating SA as a backwater for years and now they are doing deals with Clive Palmer who thinks we are a backwater,” Senator Wong said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has continually defended the preference deal, and said it was better to advise people to vote for UAP than Labor or the Greens.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the nuclear reactor plan was “dangerous”.

“We will fight nuclear power from entering our state. This dangerous technology is banned for a reason,” she said.