Peter Dutton has not visited any proposed nuclear power station locations this federal election campaign

Peter Dutton is still defending his nuclear power policy despite not having visited any of the seven proposed sites for a reactor this election campaign.

Peter Dutton has not yet visited any proposed nuclear power station site this election, while the Coalition’s reactor plan hasn’t featured in ads of most big-spending Liberal candidates on Meta.

Analysis of the Opposition Leader’s more than 50 campaign visits since the election was officially called has found Mr Dutton has not been within 50km of any of the seven proposed reactor sites across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia.

Labor has dialled up its attack on the Coalition about what Anthony Albanese has dubbed a “friendless” policy, claiming there are no private companies willing to invest in nuclear, but Mr Dutton has vowed he won’t abandon the reactor proposal even if unsuccessful at the May 3 election.

“I haven’t committed to nuclear energy for votes. I committed to it because it’s in the best interests of our country,” Mr Dutton said in the third leaders debate on Tuesday night.

The Prime Minister said if nuclear “stacked up” there would be a queue of people lining up to invest, to which Mr Dutton responded Labor should lift the moratorium on the sector and find out.

Peter Dutton has not visited any of the proposed nuclear power station sites during his election campaign.

A recent Redbridge poll in key marginal seats conducted for News Corp found Labor’s ads warning the Liberals would “cut” services to fund its nuclear policy has cut through with many voters.

The Coalition has ramped up defence of its nuclear plan, releasing analysis claiming if power price rises continued under Labor then households would pay between $612 and $3155 higher for Australians by mid 2026 compared to five years ago.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton stood by his nuclear energy plan during the third debate against Prime Minsiter Anthony Albanese. Picture: Alex Ellinghausen

Despite insisting he is not hiding from the nuclear policy, Liberal candidates spending the most on Meta advertising, which includes Facebook and Instagram, have avoided mentioning the signature policy.

The top ten Liberal seats for Meta spending are, only the party’s candidate for Wentworth, Ro Knox, is running an active Facebook ad mentioning nuclear energy.

In more than three weeks of official campaigning, the closest Mr Dutton has been to a proposed nuclear site was during a visit to Maitland in the NSW seat of Paterson, which is about 70km the Liddell coal fired power station where the Liberals are proposing to base a reactor.

Asked earlier this week why he hadn’t been to a site, Mr Dutton said “we’ve got time between now and the election”.

“But we’ve said to those communities in Collie for example in WA ... what we do there is provide an opportunity for the next hundred years for employment and economic growth,” he said.

Mr Dutton last year visited several of the nuclear sites, including Collie.

Analysis of the first 23 days of the election campaign shows Mr Dutton has spent most of his time on the “attack” visiting seats held by the Coalition’s opponents, while Mr Albanese is playing “defence” in a swathe of seats concentrated in NSW, Melbourne and Perth.

Mr Dutton has made 52 campaign stops across 36 electorates, of which 30 are held by either Labor, independents or the Greens, although only about 23 are potential in play for the Liberals – including the newly formed seat of Bullwinkel in Western Australia.

Meanwhile Mr Albanese has made 43 stops across 37 electorates, of which only 14 are held by the Coalition or Greens, with about nine of these possibly seats Labor has a chance in.

To form majority government at least 76 seats are required, and with Labor currently holding 78 that means Mr Albanese has been far more focused on defence, with visits to seats in Sydney and the Hunter region in NSW, as well as suburban Melbourne and Perth.

Originally published as Peter Dutton has not visited any proposed nuclear power station locations this federal election campaign