Ex-Green who rivalled Peter Dutton is now backing nuclear power

A decade ago this staunch Greens candidate sought to topple Peter Dutton in his seat of Dickson. Now, he’s backing the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan. Find out why he changed his mind.

EXCLUSIVE

A former Greens candidate who once sought to overthrow Peter Dutton has now emphatically backed the Liberal leader’s nuclear policy, labelling a ban on nuclear power as “morally and politically unjustifiable”. 

Tyrone D’Lisle, former Greens opponent to Mr Dutton in the 2013 federal election for the seat of Dickson and spokesman for environmental group WePlanet, said climate change cannot be tackled without nuclear energy.

He gave evidence to the Labor-led parliamentary inquiry into nuclear energy in Australia and said the mood among younger environmentalists was changing in favour of nuclear energy. 

“I came to look at the scale of the climate challenge and what would be required to genuinely address it … we just won’t be able to achieve it unless we include technologies like nuclear energy,” Mr D’Lisle said in a stark contrast to his former party.

Tyrone D'Lisle when he was a candidate for the Greens. Photo: Che Chapman

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton. Picture: Martin Ollman

The Greens do not support the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan. 

Mr D’Lisle called for Australia’s nuclear ban to be removed because it was implemented before the realities of climate change were fully realised. 

“The climate crisis at its core is an energy crisis … people need access to energy but it needs to be clean,” he said.

“Nuclear is a proven clean and reliable solution … it provides power around the clock.

“Australia’s nuclear ban introduced in 1998 is outdated, it was created before the urgency of the climate crisis was fully understood.

“This ban is morally and politically unjustifiable.”

Mr D’Lisle said he was not fronting up to the inquiry to defend the plan from his former opponent but to raise awareness about climate change.

The Sizewell B nuclear power station, operated by Electricite de France SA. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“I’m not here to defend the coalition’s plan, policy whatever you want to call it. This inquiry is into nuclear energy … we believe that there is the ability to have renewables and nuclear side-by-side,” he said.

“I was a member of the Queensland Greens for several years … I was happy to delegate my view on nuclear to party elders.

“But I came … to the conclusion over a number of years that we won’t be able to achieve it (net zero) unless we include technologies like nuclear energy and that’s a view many other people in the environmental movement have.”

He claimed that younger Greens members were pushing for more acceptance of nuclear energy.

“A lot of younger greens say they will be pushing to have the party change their position once some of the more senior leaders of the party move on,” he said.
“The mood within the party is shifting … the Finish Greens for instance now have a very pro-nuclear policy … the Ontarian Green Party also changes their policy.”

Liberal MP Simon Kennedy said the evidence highlighted the “immaturity” of the Australian debate on nuclear power.

“Labor has scored an own goal with this inquiry,” he said. ”Instead of finding resistance to nuclear power, they found dissatisfaction with the government’s plans for higher energy prices and environmental destruction.”

The Greens were contacted for comment.