Rita Panahi: Peter Dutton may launch an energy policy rooted in facts and logic, rather than renewable fairy dust

Australia is an energy-rich nation that has burdened its citizens with high energy costs, but if Peter Dutton can hold his nerve and deliver a nuclear policy he’ll go a long way to securing government.

Good news, folks.

There are clear signs that the Peter Dutton-led Coalition will be giving the electorate a clear choice at the ballot box on a range of consequential issues.

That’s quite the departure from the folly of his predecessor, Scott Morrison, who morphed from a coal-wielding conservative into a small L Liberal in the latter part of his prime ministership where he spent profusely, failed to fight the culture wars and signed the country up to net zero lunacy.

Dutton has taken a principled stand against the race-based referendum and is expected to launch an energy policy rooted in facts and logic.

Scott Morrison morphed from a coal-wielding conservative into a small L Liberal in the latter part of his prime ministership. Picture: Martin Ollman

A “coal to nuclear” transition is reportedly at the heart of the energy policy the Coalition will take to the next election.

What a spectacular departure that would be from the current self-harming madness that sees Australia – the world’s biggest exporter of coal and the country blessed with the world’s largest reserves of uranium – paying exorbitant amounts for energy by transitioning to expensive, unreliable renewables.

The sort of madness that sees a state rich in gas reserves ban gas connections in all new homes from January 1 next year, as the Victorian government announced late last month.

A move so impressively stupid that it was immediately rejected by the Labor governments of NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland.

Australian households and businesses should be enjoying some of the cheapest energy prices in the world, but thanks to the climate catastrophist-led policies of successive federal and state governments across the country, prices are soaring and plunging many into energy poverty.

Opposition Leader Dutton appears intent on reversing course and giving Australians a clear choice at the polls. Picture: Martin Ollman

If you give Australians a choice the majority will opt for lower prices and greater reliability over lower emissions.

That has consistently been the experience, including at the great “climate change election” of 2019.

And, yet the Liberals went to the last election pledging net zero and thereby removing the cost argument in an election where cost of living was the top issue.

Opposition leader Dutton appears intent on reversing course and giving Australians a clear choice at the polls.

For some time now he has been speaking about the merits of nuclear energy, and last month he disputed the activist research of the CSIRO.

“If nuclear power is so prohibitively expensive, why are more than 50 countries investing in it, including those with smaller economies than Australia … conveniently, the energy minister (Chris Bowen) is reluctant to mention the costs of storage and transmission when he talks about renewables being cheaper,” he said.

Dutton also pointed out that Australia could be using small modular reactors within a decade.

After all, why have nuclear subs, and the associated expertise and industry, under the AUKUS deal but deprive your people of the benefits of cheap, clean and reliable nuclear energy as enjoyed by many first world nations including Sweden, Finland, France and South Korea.

The Coalition’s embrace of nuclear power will no doubt enrage the activist class and give birth to an avalanche of catastrophist scaremongering from the Labor Party and its propaganda arms at the ABC, Guardian, Nine papers et al, but it’ll give the Australian people the opportunity to decide whether they want to use some of the uranium we are blessed with domestically or just continue to export it so people overseas can have cheap, reliable power.

Shadow energy and climate change spokesman Ted O’Brien told The Australian this week: “The Coalition is learning lessons from Labor’s misjudged attempts to steamroll over regional communities in their rush to roll out renewables and transmission lines.”

O’Brien points out going nuclear would “avoid the environmental damage of thousands of kilometres of transmission lines connecting new wind and solar projects …”

Far from seeing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s promised $275 energy bill reduction by 2025, Australians will see prices continue to soar as we close coal-fired power stations.

This year, electricity tariffs jumped by about 25 per cent across most states. While 25 per cent was an average increase, some consumers have seen their bills double.

We are an energy-rich nation that has deliberately burdened our citizenry with high energy costs, plunging an increasing number of households into energy poverty.

If Dutton can hold his nerve and deliver a nuclear policy, he will go a long way to securing government in 2025.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist