Barnaby Joyce reveals ex-PM Scott Morrison vetoed nuclear plan due to poor polling

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says former prime minister Scott Morrison ditched taking a nuclear energy policy to an election because it was unpopular.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says former prime minister Scott Morrison considered taking a nuclear energy policy to an election; however, it wasn’t pursued because it polled poorly and wasn’t appealing to voters.

While the Nationals firebrand asked the then Coalition government to consider nuclear energy “all the time”, Mr Morrison ultimately vetoed the decision.

“We’ve continued fighting and now the opposition is taking it on. That’s what happens in politics, you just fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, and then you finally get there,” he told The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit in Orange on Thursday.

Mr Joyce made the admission while locked in a fierce debate with pro-renewables and former Liberal NSW treasurer Matt Kean, whom Mr Joyce criticised as treacherous after he was appointed as Labor’s Climate Change Authority chair in June.

Barnaby Joyce has long called for the Coalition to adopt a pro-nuclear policy despite it being knocked back by former prime minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Former Liberal NSW treasurer Matt Kean has criticised the plan, stating a rollout would be too expensive and too slow. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Mr Joyce described renewable energy as the “most divisive thing that’s happened in my time in politics”, as it was splitting regional communities.

“We just woke up one day with the diminution of the value of our land, the transmission lines over our property, the so-called wind towers … to become future landfill around us,” he said.

Mr Joyce called for states to remove nuclear prohibitions so small-scale nuclear reactors could be built that he said would ultimately reduce energy prices.

Mr Joyce and Mr Kean clashed at multiple points during the panel at the Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit. Picture: Sky News

It follows the Coalition’s election promise it would build seven small-scale reactors from 2035 onwards, including one in the NSW central west and one in the Hunter Valley.

While Mr Kean said he wasn’t “opposed to nuclear per se”, he argued the government needed to prioritise renewables that would inject more energy supply into the system and lower power bills, adding a nuclear rollout would take too long and cost too much to build.

“Those ageing coal-fired power stations are getting older, they’re becoming less reliable, and they’re coming out of the system,” Mr Kean said.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has since shared his support of the Coalition’s plan to build small-scale nuclear reactors. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

“They need to be replaced. The cheapest way to replace them, again, according to the experts, is firmed renewables. That’s renewables with batteries, gas, those technologies … They’re the facts.”

Since the Coalition’s election pitch, Mr Morrison has supported small-scale nuclear power stations, previously telling The Australian he believed public consensus was changing.

“I hope we see many these reactors in our future, I think they are a big part of our energy future, and I would hope, at some point, the policy becomes bipartisan,” he said.

Originally published as Barnaby Joyce reveals ex-PM Scott Morrison vetoed nuclear plan due to poor polling