Peter Dutton defends uncosted nuclear power announcement

Anthony Albanese has questioned the Coalition’s ability to pull off its nuclear energy plan, labelling the proposal as “half baked” and an “economic catastrophe”.

If elected at the next federal poll, the Coalition plans to commence construction of seven nuclear reactors. Picture: Supplied

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has hit back at critics of the Coalition’s nuclear power plan, defending the decision not to release the policy’s cost which is expected to have a multi-billion price tag.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Dutton said the Coalition had deliberately not released the full details while committing to present the costings “fairly shortly”.

“We’ve got a staged approach here. If we just dumped all of this information out at once, people wouldn’t be able to consume it,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

“So we’ve deliberately taken it step by step.”

Peter Dutton called on Australians to have an “adult conversation” regarding the merits of nuclear energy. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

On Wednesday, the Coalition unveiled plans to build seven nuclear power plants by 2050 with the first reactor slated to be operational in just over a decade in a move designed to deliver cheaper, zero-emissions and reliable power supply.

The large-scale and small modular generators would be Commonwealth-owned, similar to arrangements governing the Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme, requiring a multibillion-dollar funding commitment from taxpayers. The reactors will be located in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

Contrasting with Labor’s approach which will be largely reliant on renewable energy, Mr Dutton called for Australians to have an “adult conversation” on the merits of nuclear energy.

“I honestly believe it’s in our country’s best interest and we have the ability to set ourselves up economically for generations to come,” Mr Dutton said.

“What we’re proposing now shows a very stark contrast to the intermittent power and the continued increases in costs and blackouts and brownouts that will feature in the coming years under Labor policy.”

A recent report from Australia’s peak scientific body CSIRO estimated that building a large-scale nuclear power plant in Australia would cost approximately $8.5bn and take at least 15 years to deliver, longer than the Coalition’s 10-year timeline.

Responding to the Coalition’s intervention, Anthony Albanese labelled the proposal as “half baked”, a “fantasy” and an “economic catastrophe” while claiming that the nuclear power push hadn’t been costed at all.

“The reason why there are no costings out there is because it is so expensive, because it doesn’t add up. That’s why they’re trying to hide it,” the Prime Minister told Sky News.

“There’s a reason why people hide costings, and that’s because those costings would completely rule out any rational person going down this nuclear road.

“Now they’ve moved away from coal, but they’ve found another destination of denial and that destination of denial is nuclear.”

Taking aim at the opposition’s credentials on infrastructure, Mr Albanese questioned whether a future Coalition government was up to the task of building nuclear reactors.

“Now you would have us believe that a mob who’d struggle to assemble an Ikea flat pack are going to start from scratch and be able to develop a nuclear energy industry in Australia, even though they can’t say what form the nuclear reactors will take,” he said.

Anthony Albanese lambasted the Coalition for its lack of community consultation. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

“There’s no business leaders coming out and saying they support this in terms of the energy sector. Where are they saying, ‘Yeah, we want to pitch in and build these nuclear reactors’?”

Mr Albanese also criticised the Coalition for its confused messaging regarding the seven proposed sites of the nuclear reactors.

“One of the shadow ministers has said (communities will) have the right of veto, so will they go and look for other spots? Others have said the word compulsory acquisition.

“Peter Dutton is now saying … we’ll convince them that they’re on-board even though six of the seven owners of those sites have rejected this proposal.

“Every state and territory where it’s proposed has rejected the proposals – even the Queensland LNP saying they don’t want to borrow this.”

Originally published as Peter Dutton defends uncosted nuclear power announcement