PM launches nuclear attack on Crisafulli

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has fired a salvo at Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who he said would “roll over” and allow nuclear power in the state should Peter Dutton get the keys to The Lodge.

Visiting the City Botanic Gardens on Saturday morning to announce Madonna Jarrett’s Labor candidacy for the Greens-held seat of Brisbane, Albanese said a Crisafulli government would not stand in the way of a Dutton government’s nuclear ambitions.

Dutton has put nuclear energy at the centre of his pitch to be elected prime minister, with uncosted plans to build seven nuclear power plants across the nation – including two in Queensland.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Brisbane candidate Madonna Jarrett on Saturday.Credit: Russell Freeman/AAP

Albanese said Queensland, Australia’s most regional state, was well-placed to benefit from a transition to net zero.

“Yet it’s only Labor that’s putting forward those positive plans and implementing them as part of the government,” he said.

“What we have from the Coalition is their risky nuclear plan that will call for a stop to investment in renewables that we need. They can’t say how much it will cost, they can’t say how it will exist in conjunction with the sites, given that six of the seven sites said no to this plan.

“You have chaos within the LNP between David Crisafulli, who’s pretending that none of that exists. But of course, he’ll be rolled over by Peter Dutton who’s saying he’ll roll over any state government, which is why it’s important that Steven Miles be re-elected here in a few months’ time as well.”

Crisafulli has called Dutton’s nuclear plans a “Canberra-centred distraction” and said he would not wind back Queensland’s ban on the technology if elected in October.

But last week at the LNP state convention, Queensland-based Nationals leader David Littleproud said states would have no choice but to fall in line if the Coalition won the federal election.

“We’ll have a mandate to go back to the federal parliament and pass the legislation to remove the ban and then we expect that that mandate be respected,” he said.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli (left) and Peter Dutton at the LNP convention.Credit: AAP

On Saturday, Crisafulli said his position had not changed, despite the internal party pressure.

“I don’t agree with everything that Mr Albanese says, but I do like something that he said before the last election – and that is that governments don’t get better in their fourth term,” he said.

“I’m confident that he hasn’t changed his view on that. Well, I hope he hasn’t.

“Queenslanders know my position [on nuclear power] and that hasn’t changed.”

Crisafulli rejected the notion of infighting within the LNP, but he acknowledged there would “always be different views on different things”.

To become PM, Dutton would have to overcome the candidacy of Labor’s Ali France, who was unveiled as the party’s candidate for Dickson on Friday.

It will be France’s third tilt at the seat, where she came within 1700 votes of beating Dutton in 2022. France lost her 19-year-old son, Henry, to leukaemia earlier this year and has cited him as an inspiration for her campaign.