Bowen doubles down on ‘dangerous’ ALP scare campaign

The Energy Minister is standing by a controversial Labor video which claims nuclear energy has been linked to increased rates of cancer, heart attack and strokes.

Chris Bowen has turned the blowtorch back on the Coalition, while refusing to criticise a Labor Party video which links nuclear energy to cancer, strokes and heart attacks.

The Energy Minister was pressed repeatedly this morning on a video posted on the ALP’s Instagram page, featuring Dr Margaret Beavis, who claimed ‘from a health perspective, nuclear makes no sense.’

Appearing on Nine’s Today Show, Mr Bowen was asked by Samantha Armytage if Labor had been ‘resorting to scare tactics.’

He replied: ‘we’re happy to engage in a debate. The thing about nuclear and safety is, the way you make nuclear safer is by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on each reactor to make it safer.’

Ms Armytage then asked ‘separate studies to the one referenced in this (ALP) video have found no evidence of childhood leukemia linked to nuclear power plants. Do you back the information in this video as the truth or is this fake news.’

‘The Energy Minister said ‘well it’s part of the debate. Some countries use nuclear. (However) the amount of renewable investment is 27 times bigger than the amount of nuclear investment.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

‘I’ll tell you what’s codswallop. These costings they (the Coalition) released last week’ Mr Bowen said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the scare campaign was proof ‘there are all sorts of extreme views on the Internet.’

‘It just shows this is a government in a death spiral at the moment. We are seeing a government in its last days’ Mr Dutton told Nine.

The Prime Minister also addressed the ALP video, with a journalist asking ‘are you running a scare campaign on nuclear, when it comes to health concerns. If that is the case what should defence personnel think when they’re operating on the AUKUS submarines.’

Anthony Albanese said: ‘I tell you what is scary, the failure of the Coalition to have any proper costings. It is now a week since they released their costings and it has been a shambles. Peter Dutton has been out there saying they had a cost, costing of consumers and how they would benefit. There is nothing in this costing to indicate that that is the case.’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

The feud over nuclear power is set to dominate discussion in the forthcoming federal election, with the Opposition vowing to build up to seven reactors and overturn the ban on nuclear energy in Australia.

Experts have also launched into the Labor Party over the ‘dangerous’ video on social media.

Dr Margaret Beavis, who appeared in the ALP’s video on behalf of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, is quoted saying “with cancers caused by radiation, they are not like asbestos where you get a typical cancer.

“They blend in with the other cancers that happen … however we know that childhood leukaemia … is definitely increased.’

‘It’s very clear from research, looking at over 300,000 workers, that there are significantly increased rates of cancer, heart attacks and strokes amongst the workforce in the nuclear industries’ Dr Beavis said.

Dr Margaret Beavis appeared on the ALP’s Instagram account warning of the risk of cancer from nuclear power. Picture: Instagram

Nuclear expert Dr Adi Paterson said the views from the ALP are ‘completely irresponsible’. PIcture: AAP Image

The scare campaign, which was authorised by the ALP’s National Secretary, comes as the Albanese government refuses to embrace an energy system which is freely used by more than 30 countries across the globe, including our closest allies.

Former ANSTO CEO Dr Adi Paterson described the new video as “completely irresponsible” .

“We have all grown up, and indeed we flourish, in low-level radiation that is all around us all the time,” Dr Paterson said.

“We have a large community of nuclear medicine specialists in this country who use radiation every day to diagnose cancers … and to treat children and adults using radiation to kill cancers.”

His views were echoed by Mark Schneider, an industry veteran who has worked in eight different nuclear reactors over more than two decades.

“What Labor is presenting is dangerous as well as unhinged. The unit of measurement is the sievert. I have received ten millisieverts of radiation over 23 years.

“Compare that to my daughter who received 100 millisieverts from abdominal CT scans by age three. Labor’s response is dangerous and anti-science.”

The claims by Dr Beavis, a Melbourne GP who has long warned of the catastrophic consequences of full-blown nuclear war, are based on a 2023 study of 310,000 workers in the nuclear industry across France, the United Kingdom and the United States. It determined there was “a linear increase in the relative rate of cancer with increasing exposure to radiation”.

However, in response to the findings, epidemiologist Amy Berrington told international media “for every 1,000 people exposed to 100 millisieverts of ionising radiation — most nuclear workers are exposed to less than 10 millisieverts — there could be an extra 10 deaths, instead of five, on top of the more than 200 expected deaths from tumours produced by other causes.”

A separate Canadian research paper, studying people living near three nuclear reactors in Ontario found “there is no consistent pattern of cancer across the populations in question”.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Dr Beavis’ claims were ‘a matter of public record.’ Picture: Jeremy Piper

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien added: “Labor is completely out of step with the rest of the world and should be ashamed of its low brow scaremongering.

“Instead of standing up for Australia’s nuclear credentials, the government is trying to scare the Australian people.”

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