Matt Canavan: Minister caught out in hysterical anti-nuclear screed

The federal energy minister is on the wrong side of the generational divide on nuclear power as a future option, writes Matt Canavan.

Australia seems committed to trying every possible failed energy policy before adopting the obvious solution of building more power stations that are not dependent on the weather.

At Christmas last year, the new Labor government announced that it would cap gas prices to help you save $230 a year on your power bills. This week, the energy regulator announced what Queenslanders would pay next year.

The average Queenslander’s bill will go up by $349.

It gets worse. Last Christmas, the government claimed that it would cap gas prices at $12 per gigajoule. In their draft decision, the energy regulator had assumed a $12 gas price. In the final decision, they have had to admit that gas prices will actually be $18 per gigajoule.

So much for a cap. Price caps never work and the government’s gas price cap has failed within a year.

The Labor government, and the energy regulators, also claimed that the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station last month would not lead to a spike in energy prices. When Liddell shut, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said that “we are not concerned about any supply crunch in the energy grid on Friday, or the period following because of the closure of Liddell”.

In the month since, electricity prices have increased by 40 per cent in Queensland. And the energy regulator has had to issue multiple warnings of energy shortages. The crunch is here.

In contrast to Australia, Finland is building new, reliable, baseload power stations. Its OL3 nuclear reactor came online last month. Finnish power prices have dropped from an average of $400 per megawatt hour in December to less than $100 per megawatt hour in April.

Australia used to have wholesale power prices of $50 per megawatt hour thanks to our abundant coal and gas.

Instead of using those resources, we have been installing record rates of solar and wind, at a rate four times faster than Europe or North America.

We are told the renewables are the cheapest form of power. Yet the more renewables we install, the higher power prices rise. Over the past year, Queensland electricity prices have been $168 per megawatt hour, more than three times their pre-renewables level.

3 reasons why Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan is a dumb idea for Australia… pic.twitter.com/vmcxgoXxwW

— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) May 13, 2023

After having gone through multiple failed approaches, perhaps its time we start using our energy resources again. Australia has the world’s largest uranium reserves yet we are one of the few countries that ban nuclear energy.

A week before the higher electricity prices came out, the Senate held hearings into my bill to legalise nuclear energy.

Sixteen-year-old Queenslander Will Shackel travelled to Canberra to support nuclear energy. Not only did Will star before the Senate, he appeared live on the Sunrise show and Sky News. He is a young kid with a bright future.

Will is representative of the generational divide on nuclear power. Young Australians are increasingly supportive of the idea of going nuclear. Many of them like nuclear because it has next to no carbon emissions. Some are attracted to exciting nuclear scientific developments, like small modular reactors and fusion technologies.

Others can just see, like many of us, that wind and solar alone cannot power our modern lives.

At the other end of this generational divide is Mr Bowen, the Energy Minister. A fortnight ago, he posted a hysterical antinuclear screed to Twitter. He used a ridiculous picture of yellow, rusty, 44-gallon drums dumped in a field to scare people. Twitter has now fact-checked his video, calling it an “inaccurate representation of nuclear waste”.

It turns out the image he used is a stock photo that was generated by artificial intelligence. Bowen’s misleading photo was about the only thing resembling intelligence in his arguments.

Despite Mr Bowen’s concerns, his government is buying nuclear submarines that will generate nuclear waste. Why would we maintain a ban on nuclear energy reactors on land when we will legalise them 20,000 leagues under the sea?

People are struggling to keep their heads above water as prices skyrocket. We should do everything to help poor people pay their bills and that includes using all of our energy resources for the benefit of all Australians.

Let’s hope we are almost through the failed energy options. Let’s remove the ban on nuclear energy before more Australians are crushed by rising power bills.

Matt Canavan is an LNP senator for Queensland