Andrew Bolt: Subs deal torpedoes Labor’s nuclear policy mess

Now that the Albanese government has agreed to buy 11 nuclear submarines, could the Prime Minister tell us why nuclear power is not good for Australian homes?

The Albanese Labor government must be embarrassed – humiliated – now that it’s agreed to buy 11 nuclear submarines.

Hello, nuclear subs?

Could the Prime Minister now answer the obvious question: why is nuclear power good for our submarines, but not for Australian homes?

Why is it safe to have nearly 2000 of our sailors sitting right on top of nuclear reactors in their vessels, but far too dangerous to have nuclear reactors sitting out in the country?

This subs deal torpedoes Labor’s hysterical mess of a nuclear policy.

The Albanese government must be embarrassed by the hypocrisy. Picture: AFP

Here is a Labor government that insists nuclear power be banned from powering our homes and factories, yet is now actually agreeing to build nuclear submarines for our navy.

What a backflip. And it gets funnier: Labor crusaded for years against building a nuclear waste industry, yet now also agrees to take these submarines’ nuclear waste.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad Labor is going through with a deal the Morrison Liberal government set up with the US and Britain. We need these subs, because nuclear ones are best.

But I’m also glad that Labor’s cynical fearmongering over nuclear power is finally crumbling, and its hypocrisy and incoherence being exposed.

So, nuclear power is fine for our navy but the government still bans it for our homes and factories, even though our electricity regulator says parts of Australia could run short of electricity in just two years.

The greatest fraud in this farce is federal Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, a global warming zealot and the government’s most dangerous minister.

Bowen should actually love nuclear power. It’s zero emissions, for heaven’s sake, and isn’t he (falsely) claiming we must cut our emissions to save the planet from a super-heated doom?

Chris Bowen should actually love nuclear power. Picture: Gary Ramage

Being zero emissions is exactly one of the things that make nuclear power perfect for these subs. Diesel subs must surface to burp out their exhaust fumes, but nuclear ones can stay underwater for months.

So what’s Bowen’s excuse for his anti-nuclear antics?

His first argument is that nuclear power is just too expensive, so he’s betting our future – and our billions – on wind and solar instead, with backups like the Snowy 2.0 scheme to act as a giant battery for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

But Bowen is playing the giddy goat. It’s hard to take his claims seriously, especially today, when energy regulators have just flagged more massive rises in default offers for electricity – prices rises for households of up to 30.4 per cent in Victoria, and nearly 24 per cent in other eastern states. For small business, the rises are even more crippling – 31.9 per cent in Victoria.

Where is this cheaper green power that global warmists have promised us for years? Where is this miracle green power that the Albanese government promised would cut our bills by $275?

The wind and the sun are free, the clueless crusaders would chirrup, but it was always fantasy stuff.

Our federal and state governments, crazed with this warming religion, helped to destroy a third of our coal-fired power stations in a decade without actually having any proper replacement for them.

We’re behind in building new green-power generators, we’re behind in building the wires to hook them up, and we’re way behind in building the backup, and unsure it would work, anyway. Plus it’s all costing much more than predicted.

The Snowy 2.0 scheme, for instance, has blown out to about 10 times the $2bn first claimed, and is years behind, with a giant tunnel-digging machine hopelessly stuck underground.

But Bowen’s real attack isn’t the cost. Cost doesn’t explain why Labor actually bans nuclear power, rather than let investors take their chances.

No, Bowen is addicted to spreading fear about nuclear. He’s warned that the Liberals would build a reactor in a suburb near you. He’s mocked the Opposition’s energy spokesman for studying Japan’s nuclear industry, jeering: “Nuclear: What we can learn from Fukushima.”

Er, Minister Bowen? What we learned from Fukushima is that a nuclear reactor can be smashed by a massive earthquake and then a tsunami and – get this – not one person dies of nuclear contamination. Not one person even gets sick.

Bowen is a fool. Nuclear power makes so much sense that 422 nuclear power stations generate 10 per cent of the world’s electricity, and 57 more are being built.

And now this anti-nuclear Albanese government has ordered 11 nuclear reactors for our navy. It makes no sense at all.