Nuclear fallout: Coalition’s energy policy proved toxic to voters

The Coalition’s nuclear energy policy was toxic to voters, delivering big swings against Peter Dutton’s candidates in electorates chosen to host reactors, while support for Labor grew in many places it chose for massive offshore wind farms.

Dutton’s energy policy was built on opposing Labor’s “reckless race to renewables”, which the Coalition claimed was trashing farmland in the path of transmission lines and solar panels, in favour of a nuclear and gas-led strategy.

Deposed opposition leader Peter Dutton’s campaign stop in the formerly marginal seat of Gilmore, on the NSW South Coast, was gatecrashed by nuclear protesters.Credit: James Brickwood

“I’m very happy for the election to be a referendum on energy, on nuclear,” Dutton said on June 19, when he announced his planned nuclear plant locations.

Dutton had not visited any of his proposed nuclear sites by the time the election was over, while the party quietened its advertising for the policy.

In the NSW electorate of Hunter, which borders where the Coalition planned to build a reactor on the site of the old Liddell coal plant, Labor MP Dan Repacholi significantly increased his support.

Repacholi’s first-preference votes jumped from 39 per cent in 2022 to 44 per cent in 2025, while the Nationals fell from 27 per cent to 18 per cent.

The central west NSW seat of Calare was also slated for a reactor near Lithgow, and the election turned into a three-cornered contest between the pro-nuclear Nationals, their former member-turned-nuclear sceptic independent Andrew Gee, and nuclear opponent Kate Hook.

This contest was one of the most bitter of the election because Gee quit the party over its opposition to the Voice and reduced the junior Coalition partner’s all-important numbers in the partyroom.

The Nationals were out for revenge and poured resources into the campaign of candidate Sam Farraway, but the party’s primary vote fell from 38 per cent in 2022 to 30 per cent in 2025.

Gee captured 24 per cent of the primary vote to Hook’s 21 per cent, handing Gee an almost certain win on preferences.

However, south of the border in the electorate of Gippsland, where the Coalition planned to build a reactor at the Loy Yang A coal plant, Nationals MP Darren Chester defied the trend with his primary vote falling from 55.2 per cent in 2022 to 53.5 per cent in 2025.

The figures could change as the Australian Electoral Commission continues to tally ballots.

The nuclear vote also appears to have inflicted pain on Coalition seats where no nuclear plants were planned.

Chief architect and advocate for the policy, energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, the Liberal National Party MP for Fairfax in Queensland, dropped to 38 per cent on the primary vote from 44 per cent in 2022, while Labor ticked up 2 per cent and anti-nuclear independent candidate Francine Wiig captured 12 per cent.

Nationals leader David Littleproud’s primary vote dropped from 54 per cent in 2022 to 52 per cent.

On the day after the election, Littleproud said nuclear was not responsible for the Coalition’s historic loss.

“I think this was a schmick campaign by Labor destroying Peter Dutton’s character,” he told Sky News.

Dutton vigorously campaigned against wind farms, visiting electorates planned for development and claiming the industry would harm whales, commercial fishing and seascape views.

Credit: Matt Golding

The Coalition pledged to ban four of Labor’s six offshore wind zones, and Dutton campaigned on this commitment in Paterson, north of Sydney, as well as Whitlam and Cunningham south of Sydney, and Forrest south of Perth.

In Forrest, the Liberal vote fell from 43 per cent in 2022 to 31.5 per cent. First-time independent candidate Sue Chapman, who backed assessment of offshore wind in the area “based on the evidence and [would] aim to bring the community along”, picked up 18.5 per cent of primary votes.

In Cunningham, Wollongong Labor MP Alison Byrnes increased her primary vote from 40.5 per cent in 2022 to 45 per cent.

Down the road in Shellharbour, part of the electorate of Whitlam, Labor’s Carol Berry maintained the 38 per cent primary vote from the past election (although, in terms of the two-candidate preferred vote, Whitlam recorded a 2 per cent swing against Labor).

Bucking the trend but surviving was Labor MP Meryl Swanson in the Hunter Valley electorate of Paterson. Her primary vote fell to 37 per cent from 41 per cent in 2022. The Liberal vote went from 37 per cent to 27 per cent in the same time, while anti-offshore wind independent Philip Penfold picked up 10 per cent of the vote.

Read more on Labor’s landslide election win

• Inside story: How the Coalition campaign was a catastrophe months in the making
• Some seats are still too close to call. Here are all the races that remain in doubt – plus every seat that’s changed hands
• Interactive: See how your polling booth voted in this election
• Live results: Track every seat in the country
• Live blog: Anthony Albanese plans second term, Liberals plan a leadership change

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