Peter Dutton’s massive $331b move to slash bills

After months of calls to release the details of the controversial policy, the Liberal leader will unveil a strategy that he says will reduce bills.

Peter Dutton will roll out his nuclear energy plan on Friday urging Australians to pump $331 billion into the switch over the next 25 years but insisting it will cost around half of Labor’s renewables strategy and reduce energy costs.

After months of calls to release the details of the controversial policy, the Liberal leader will unveil a strategy that he insists will reduce the need for new transmission infrastructure.

It’s all based on a bold prediction that Australia’s electricity needs will not grow as fast as Labor predictions.

“Australians will be better off under our plan,” Mr Dutton said.

“We will avoid hidden costs, ­reduce unnecessary infrastructure expenses, and lead to lower energy prices. Labor’s chaotic plan ­burdens Australians with a system that costs five times more than they were promised.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will roll out his nuclear plan today. Photo: Peter Dutton Facebook.

“The Coalition’s plan ensures Australians are not overburdened by unnecessary expenses or reckless policies. Nuclear energy is at the heart of our plan, providing the ‘always-on’ power needed to back up renewables and stabilise the grid.”

The plan assumes that the first nuclear power plant would be operational by 2036. The Coalition plans to build seven nuclear power plants, that will cost $263 billion less than Labor’s renewable energy policy by 2050.

Mr Dutton said the plan will bring down the cost of living in the long run. Picture: Richard Dobson

According to Frontier Economics costings, commissioned by the Coalition, the construction and operation of the nuclear plants will deliver net zero by 2050 and cost $331 billion.

“If you have a look at the international experience, of the top 20 economies in the world, Australia is the only one that doesn’t have or hasn’t signed up to nuclear power. It says to me that it works in every other market, why can’t it work in Australia? Because the Government is trying to chase Green votes here in Australia,’’ Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton declared that “nuclear energy is an idea whose time has come”

‘They are making it up as they go along’

Labor’s energy spokesman Chris Bowen has slammed Mr Dutton’s plan, noting that he is yet to release any of the costs publicly.

“They are making it up as they go along,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

“Just plucked the figure out of the air, and they’ve implied, which I imagine we’ll see in the costings today, that nuclear needs less transmission, which it doesn’t, spoiler alert, it doesn’t,

“You’ve still got to get the electricity around the country. I’m not sure how they’re going to get the nuclear power into the grid, maybe by carrier pigeon.

“If they’re going to assert that you somehow need less transmission, we’ll go through all the details.

“But they’ve had to make some very heroic assumptions here, and they’ve had to really stretch the truth to try and get some very dodgy figures.”

Mr Bowen also questioned the prediction that a huge percentage of Australia’s power can come from nuclear power.

“I mean, what the Liberal Party will propose is...38% nuclear by 2050 which will be one of the highest nuclear penetrations in the world, which is the most expensive form of energy,’’ Mr Bowen said.

“So, good luck to them.”

In September, the Liberal leader declared that “nuclear energy is an idea whose time has come,” predicting that the controversial energy option is Australia’s only chance to reach net zero by 2050.

But he’s warned it would not happen overnight with the Coalition’s policy, like other countries, backing an energy mix of renewables, gas and nuclear.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: David Gray / AFP

“We can have cheaper, cleaner and consistent energy if we adopt nuclear power. And zero-emission nuclear power is our only chance to reach net zero by 2050,” Mr Dutton said in an address to the Committee for Economic Development Australia in Sydney.

Mr Dutton said that “Labor’s energy policy train wreck is only making it more vital that we include nuclear power”.

“Nowhere in the world has a renewables-only policy worked,’’ he said.

“Labor’s plan is for 82 per cent renewables by 2030,’’ Mr Dutton said.

“In September 2022, Chris Bowen said that reaching that target would require installing 22,000 solar panels every day and 40 wind turbines every month through to 2030.

“In total, that’s more than 58 million solar panels and around 3,500 wind turbines – which have lifespans of 20 to 30 years.

“Under our approach, we can use the existing transmission network at those sites. With nuclear power, there’s no need to carpet our landscape and coastline with industrial-scale solar and wind farms.”

Aussies are suffering from sky-high power prices.

“It’s clear the Government will not reach its 2030 target. Indeed, there is zero chance of reaching net zero by 2050 using renewables alone.

“The renewables-only energy policy is an act of economic self-harm. Australia’s power prices are sometimes double and even triple what other nations pay.”

Dutton’s ‘insane’ nuclear comments slammed

Treasurer Jim Chalmers slammed the policy as “economic insanity”, but Mr Dutton is forging ahead with his plan to build seven nuclear reactors across five states, should he win the next election, raising the prospect of lower power prices in the long term.

Slamming the response of Labor and union supporters as “juvenile” after critics responded to the idea with memes of three-eyed fishes as part of a scare campaign on potential safety risks, Mr Dutton has outlined more information about the proposal in a major speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Monday.

The proposed reactors would be built in areas with existing coal-fired power stations, including the Hunter Valley and Lithgow in New South Wales, Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, Collie in Western Australia and Port Augusta in South Australia.

Mount Piper coal Power Station, Portland NSW.

Mr Dutton said it was no surprise that countries like Indonesia and Vietnam were charging ahead with plans to explore nuclear power.

“I just think the juvenile discussion that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and Chris Bowen have been carrying on with, they’re treating Australians like mugs,’’ he said.

“They put out the photos of the three-eyed fish and the rest of it, but that fell flat because people knew it was nonsense.

“Of the top 20 economies in the world, Australia is the only one that hasn’t embraced or signed up to nuclear.

“In Ontario (Canada), people are paying one-third the cost of electricity that they are here in Australia because they’ve got nuclear in their system. I just think we need to have a sensible debate. We can’t run a modern economy without stable electricity.”

Treasurer slams “economic insanity” of nuclear power

Labor continues to argue the Coalition’s nuclear power plant idea is just another way of putting off taking concrete action on climate change into the distant future.

“Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is economic insanity,” Chalmers told Sky News on Sunday. “It costs more, it will push power prices up, it will take longer.

“He needs to come clean tomorrow in this speech: what will it cost, what will it mean for power bills, how will he pay for it, and what will Australia do for the decades it will take to build these reactors.”

“He is a big risk to energy and to power prices in this country,” he said. “The fact that he’s not prepared to release those details, I think, should ring alarm bells for every Australian.

In the lead-up to the nuclear announcement in June, Mr Dutton told The Weekend Australian that he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target, a 43 per cent cut compared with 2005 levels, at the next election but remain committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

He conceded that the Coalition’s commitment to introduce nuclear power in Australia would not lead to plants being built before 2040.

Mr Dutton unveiled where he wants to build nuclear power plants in Australia in June, pledging to build two nuclear plants between 2035 and 2037.

The proposal would see the nuclear power plants owned by the government under the same set-up as entities such as the Snowy Hydro scheme.

“I want to make sure that the Australian public understands today that we have a vision for our country to deliver cleaner electricity, cheaper electricity and consistent electricity,’’ he said.

“This is a plan for our country which will underpin a century of economic growth and jobs for these communities.

“The assets will be owned by the Commonwealth, a very important point.”

What does it mean for the Paris Agreement?

Critics have claimed that Mr Dutton’s new position could break Australia’s 2015 commitment to the Paris Agreement, under which nearly 200 countries said they would aim to limit global heating to well below 2C and attempt to limit it to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Mr Dutton said this was not the case, and he would not be walking away from the Paris Agreement.

“I think it’s very clear that we have absolute commitment to Paris and our commitment for net zero by 2050,” he said.

“It’s important, it doesn’t need to be linear, as we’ve pointed out, and we’re not going to send the economy into free fall and families bankrupt through an ideologically based approach.”