‘He’s scared’: Dutton demands debate as Albanese taunts ‘hiding’ opposition leader

Peter Dutton has challenged Anthony Albanese to a debate on nuclear power before the next election, as the war of words escalates over the opposition’s energy policy.

“I’m happy to challenge the prime minister to a debate on nuclear power whenever he wants. But he won’t take up that because when you see images of the prime minister, you know that he’s, I think, scared at the moment,” Dutton told Nine’s Today show.

The prime minister returned fire within hours on Friday morning, accusing the opposition leader of attempting to hide his policy costings from scrutiny by announcing them at a press conference in Brisbane, just before Christmas, and then hoping public debate over the figures would “disappear”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has challenged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to a debate over energy.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Dutton’s challenge echoes the clashes between former prime minister Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott in the months before Julia Gillard seized the Labor leadership in 2010.

Dutton was appearing on Nine when he dared the prime minister to debate him.

“He’s scared of the fact that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. They don’t know how to manage the economy. Australian families have now been in seven successive quarters of going backwards in their household budgets. That’s what the government’s presided over.”

Albanese said scientific and technical experts in the energy sector, including the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator, did not support the opposition’s nuclear policy.

“[Dutton has] hid from the costings. Announced it just before Christmas, announced it not in Canberra and before the National Press Gallery, but went up to Brisbane to announce it just before Christmas hoping that it would just disappear,” he said.

“I’ll tell you what’s disappeared – the Coalition’s credibility. Because every analysis says it will take too long, it will cost too much and it just doesn’t add up for Australia.”

While in opposition in 2021, Labor released costings for its energy policy and Albanese and shadow climate minister Chris Bowen made the announcement in Canberra.

Dutton has given two press conferences in Canberra since June 4, the second cut short because it began just 15 minutes before question time.

The Coalition released costings for its nuclear power policy last week. The report, conducted by Frontier Economics, claimed Dutton’s plan will cost $331 billion by 2050 and be 44 per cent less expensive than Labor’s renewables plan.

The work explicitly stated it had not modelled the impact on electricity prices, though Dutton and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor have claimed bills would be 44 per cent lower over time.

Labor, for its part, has warned the economy would grow at a 12 per cent lower rate every year as a result of the opposition’s plan, delivering a $4 trillion hit to the economy by 2050.

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